Stolen Destiny
by DaLiza
Summary: A demon alters the timeline so that Prue, Piper and Phoebe never become Charmed. Can Leo convince the sisters to set things right or will they refuse when they learn of Prue's death? Eventual pairings: PiperLeo, PrueAndy, PhoebeCole.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Not for the first time that night, Piper Halliwell wished that she could just kill something and go home. It wasn't supposed to be this way. She wasn't supposed to be standing in a dark alley lit only by one flickering streetlight, wishing she had worn a warmer coat. She looked over at her younger sisters, Phoebe and Paige. Phoebe was running in place, desperately trying to generate some body heat. Paige, leaning against a dumpster, was rubbing her arms vigorously. They looked just as miserable as she was. _Another glamorous job for the Charmed Ones, the most powerful witches in the world_, Piper thought sarcastically.

Wistfully Piper closed her eyes, remembering how pleasantly this miserable day had begun. Phoebe had agreed to watch Wyatt so that Piper could spend some much needed together time with Leo. She felt that she had barely seen her husband lately; she and her sisters had been too busy saving the world. Today was supposed to be different. Today there would be no demons, no distractions. They would be an ordinary couple enjoying a well deserved break.. For a while it seemed as if their perfect day would really happen. She and Leo had spent precious minutes snuggling and kissing, all the troubles of the world blissfully forgotten. She should have known it wouldn't last.

One minute Leo was smiling, the next all emotion drained from his face. _What's wrong? _She had asked him. _The Elders...they're calling. _Piper felt her whole body bristle with rage. _No, it's not fair. I took a day off from P3, and you said you asked them for a day off. Can't it wait until tomorrow? _Leo looked at her sadly. She knew he didn't want to leave her. _They said they would call only if it was an emergency. If it's an emergency, it can't wait until tomorrow. I'm sorry. _Piper felt a tear slide down her cheek. _One day, Leo, is all I asked for, and the universe can't even give us that. _Leo took a tissue from the bedside table and gently wiped Piper's cheek. _I know. I'll try to deal with it as soon as I can and get back to you. I love you. _Then he had disappeared in his usual shower of lights.

When he had reappeared several minutes later, he was the bearer of bad news. William, a fellow whitelighter, had been killed that morning by a darklighter. The Elders wanted him to watch William's charges and help train a replacement. While Leo did his duty, Piper and her sisters did theirs. They had been tracking the darklighter all day-- a perfectly normal Wiccan weekday. Finally, Phoebe had had a premonition which led them to -what else?- a darkened alley. So once again they had put their lives on hold to save someone else's. It wasn't that Piper didn't enjoy saving innocents, but she wanted and deserved some time for herself now and then. Was that really too much to ask? A chill consumed her entire body. Why hadn't she worn her gloves? How would she blow up this darklighter if her hands fell off from frostbite?

Paige's voice broke through her thoughts. "Phoebe, are you sure he's coming here?"

"Of course I'm sure." Phoebe refused to meet Paige's glance. "Mostly." "Mostly?" Paige snapped. "We've been standing here freezing our butts off for over twenty minutes and you're only mostly sure?!"

Phoebe glared at Paige with venomous eyes. "Look, my premonitions don't come with a map, okay? I'm doing the best I can."

Paige's face filled with regret. "I know, sweetie. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have yelled at you." Phoebe hugged her younger sister.

"Let's just forget it...Hey!" Paige stared at her sister's hands suspiciously. "Are those my gloves? I've been looking for those for days! Hand them over!"

"No way," Phoebe answered. "These are my gloves. It's just a coincidence that they look a lot like a pair that you own."

Piper tuned out the bickering. She had had hundreds- no, thousands- of similar exchanges with her older sister Prue when they were younger. At the thought of her lost sister, Piper could feel fresh tears forming, but she refused to let them loose. Prue had been killed a few years earlier by a demon. Piper would never stop missing her, never stop wandering if there was something she could have done to bring her back. The possibilities, the endless what ifs still tormented her. If they had never become the Charmed Ones, Prue would still be alive. She and Prue might have been at the Manor tonight, hanging out or watching television together or getting dressed for a night out on the town. Instead Prue was dead and she was standing in an alley, slowly freezing to death, waiting to vanquish yet another member of a never-ending parade of evil.

Phoebe and Paige had stopped bickering long enough to notice Piper's pained expression. "Are you okay, Piper?" Phoebe gently asked.

"Of course." Piper answered quickly. "I'm just tired of waiting, that's all."

"I'm sure we'll get him soon." Paige chipped in, a little too cheery for Piper's current mood.

"Yeah, I'm sure we will." Piper responded. She wasn't sure at all, but she knew it was the right thing to say.

Several minutes later, the sisters crouched behind the dumpster when they heard the sound of footsteps. "Look, there's the girl from my vision," Phoebe whispered. The girl was in her mid twenties. Her long brown hair was arranged in a ponytail which reached the middle of her back. She was humming softly, complete unaware that she was about to be attacked by a supernatural being.

"She must be a future whitelighter," Paige theorized. She had barely finished her sentence when the darklighter appeared behind the girl. Paige orbed herself in front of the girl, grabbed her, then orbed the two of them behind the dumpster. The darklighter howled and moved towards them. Piper was ready. She threw her hands forward and watched him explode.

She felt the adrenaline rush that accompanied every vanquish, but this time it seemed to fade quickly. She heard Phoebe and Paige talking to the girl, but she wasn't listening. Her thoughts had returned to Prue and the normal life they used to have. She knew they would never get that life back, but she couldn't help wanting it. With a heavy heart she and Phoebe held Paige's hands and orbed back to the Manor.

Soon, however, everything was going to change.

**Thanks for reading! All reviews are greatly appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"I can't sense her," Hannah said with a sigh. "What kind of whitelighter can't sense her charges?"

"Just be patient. No one expects you to be perfect on the first try," Leo told her. He and Hannah were thousands of miles above San Francisco. The Elders had asked him to help train her so she could take over William's charges. "Relax. Breathe slowly. Try again."

Hannah closed her eyes and wrinkled her brow in concentration. After a few minutes, she blurted out, "I think I 'm getting something! It worked! I can sense her! She's at home and she's safe! Thanks, Leo."

Leo gave her an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "Glad to help. You'll be a great whitelighter, Hannah."

Hannah forced a smile. "I hope you're right. Honestly, I'm a little scared. This is such an important responsibility. I don't want to mess it up."

Leo resisted the urge to laugh. He had said the same things over sixty years ago. "Everyone feels that way. The Elders wouldn't have chosen you to be a whitelighter if they didn't think you could handle it."

"But what if they were wrong? What if I lose a charge?"

Leo thought of Prue. He had always regretted not being able to save her. There was nothing he could have done, and yet he still felt that he had failed somehow. "It happens sometimes. You can't let it destroy you. You learn to move on. You have to be strong for your other charges." _Like I had to be strong for Piper_, he thought.

Hannah lowered her voice and looked around to make sure no one was listening. "One of the Elders, Solon I think, he told me that you fell in love with one of your charges. Is that true?"

Leo laughed. "Yes, I did. Piper and I got married, and we have a son, Wyatt." _Of course, they were very hesitant to let us get married, _he remembered. _First they tried to break us up for breaking the rules. _"What else did they tell you?"

Hannah looked around again to make sure they were alone. "Well, Philip added that he strongly advised me not to make the same mistake."

Leo wasn't surprised. Philip had been a vocal opponent of their marriage. "_I _wouldn't consider it a mistake."

"Of course not. Piper's very lucky to have you," Hannah answered. "It must be hard on you both, though, to maintain a relationship when you're fighting evil all the time."

"It is," Leo admitted. "Today, for example, we were going to spend time together, just the two of us. Then William was killed and--"

"You had to look after his charges and help train me," Hannah interrupted. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. It just--" Leo suddenly fell to his knees.

"Leo! Leo!" Hannah shouted. She knelt down beside him. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I don't know. I felt this great pain in my mind. Something awful has happened." Slowly he stood up again. "I'm going to go check on Piper and her sisters. You check on your charges."

"Okay," Hannah said as she orbed.

As Leo orbed, he prayed that whatever evil he had sensed had not harmed the sisters. Impatiently he waited to materialize in his and Piper's bedroom. When the lights around him finally cleared, he saw Piper asleep in their bed. He raced to her side. She was breathing normally; she was fine. The Manor was absolutely silent, and the pain in his head was gone. What had caused it? He had been so sure that something was horribly wrong, and yet everything seemed perfectly normal. Leo watched Piper sleep for a few minutes and realized how exhausted he was. _Whatever happened_, he decided, _I can figure it out tomorrow_. He changed his clothes and climbed into bed beside Piper, wrapping his arm around her waist protectively. He fell asleep almost instantly and slept soundly until morning, when Piper's screaming woke him.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Piper's first thought was that she was still dreaming; that was the only reasonable explanation. In a minute or two she would wake up and the strange man sleeping in her bed would be gone. She waited patiently for him to vanish. He didn't. Tentatively she reached out a finger and touched his arm. The man stirred slightly at her touch but remained asleep. _Oh my god, oh my god_, Piper's mind repeated. _I'm not dreaming! There really is a strange man in my bed! Who is he? How did he get here? Is this some kind of sick joke? Or he is some lunatic who broke into the house in the middle of the night and is planning to kill me and my sisters_? She stopped thinking and started screaming. The strange man instantly leapt out of bed and pulled Piper into an embrace. "Piper, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong?!" She repeated incredulously as she freed herself from his grasp. She looked at him closely for the first time. She had to admit that he was rather attractive and, had they met under different circumstances, she might have been interested in him. "Who are you? How do you know my name? What are you doing in my bedroom?"

The man looked genuinely confused. "Piper, it's me. Leo. Your husband."

_Okay, definitely a lunatic_, Piper decided. She walked to the door and opened it. "I think I would remember getting married. Leave now or I'll call the police." She heard footsteps running down the hall, then Phoebe appeared in the open doorway.

"Piper, are you okay?" Phoebe asked. "I had a dream that you were screaming."

"I was screaming, Phoebs. It's comforting to know that I can count on you the next time someone breaks into the house." Piper said sarcastically.

"Someone broke– oh, hello," Phoebe said as she noticed Leo for the first time. "Piper, I didn't know that you brought someone home! Good for you! I guess that explains the screaming." She winked suggestively at her sister and walked over to the stranger. "Hi, I'm--"

"Phoebe, what's going on?" The man calling himself "Leo" interrupted.

"That's what I'd like to know," Piper snapped. "Phoebe, I didn't bring this guy home. I woke up and found him here."

"Well, that happened to me a few times back in my partying days. It can be embarrassing at first, but--"

"PHOEBE!" Piper yelled. "I wasn't partying or drinking or anything like that last night. I was reading a book, I fell asleep, and when I woke up this guy was sleeping in my bed! And he says we're married!"

"Piper, we are married!" Leo cried. "And we have a son, Wyatt!" He ran to her closet door and threw it open expectantly. He seemed surprised to find only clothes and shoes inside. "But this was...we converted this into the nursery..."

Piper had had enough of this guy's delusions. "Whoever you are, I want you to leave. NOW."

Leo pleaded with Piper. "Please, hear me out. I don't know why you don't know me, but I don't mean you any harm. I just want to find out what's going on. Believe me, I'm not a threat to you or Phoebe or Paige, and--"

"Paige?" Phoebe interrupted. "Who's Paige?"

"You don't know Paige?"

"Listen, buddy, I've asked you to leave twice. Now I'm calling the police." Piper started to leave the room, but Leo put a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait- you don't have to do that. I'll leave...". He blew some strange dust in their faces. "You won't remember anything about this conversation or me." He disappeared from the Manor and their memories.

"What were we just talking about?" Piper asked Phoebe.

"I don't remember. It couldn't have been that important." Phoebe answered.

Piper checked her watch. "I'm going to make a quick breakfast before I get ready to leave for Windbury's. Do you want some?"

"Sure. Should I knock on Prue's door and see if she wants to join us?"

**Thanks for reading! All comments are like ambrosia from the gods.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Leo's mind whirled with questions. Had he stepped back in time? What other reason could there be for Piper and Phoebe not knowing him, their son, or Paige? If so, how had it happened? How far back had he gone? Was this the cause of the terrible pain he had felt last night? Whatever it was, he would fix it. The whitelighter dust would have erased the memories of their disastrous earlier encounter. Now he had a second chance to talk with the sisters and find out what had happened. This time he would be more careful; nothing would stop him from getting his family back. Holding his tool box in his right hand, he knocked on the door of the Manor and stifled a gasp when Prue Halliwell answered.

His mind flashed back to the last time he had seen Prue. The house had looked like a small explosion had detonated. Amid the fallen beams and debris Leo had seen three bodies. The first body he found was that of a doctor the girls had been protecting. He held out his hands over the doctor's body, waiting for the familiar glow which would heal the doctor's wounds. The glow wouldn't appear. The doctor was dead, and he couldn't heal the dead. He rushed over to the second body: Prue's body. Again he held out his hands, again nothing appeared. He tried a second and a third time. It was no use; he couldn't heal her. How could this be happening?

Tears blinding his vision, Leo had tripped over a piece of rubble in his haste to come to Piper's side. What if she was dead too? How could he live with himself? _Please, Please, don't let Piper be dead_, he had silently prayed, _not after everything we've gone_ _through to be together. Please, I'll do anything_, he promised the powers above. Slowly he had put his hands over her and waited. Those were the longest seconds of his life. This time, however, the welcome glow appeared, and Piper started to stir. Leo had cried out with relief.

As Piper opened her eyes, Leo had raised her into a sitting position and kissed her, his tears rolling down his cheeks and washing hers. As long as he kissed her and she kissed him back, he knew that she was alive– and unable to ask him the question he was dreading. He had held the kiss as long as he could, but eventually Piper had broken away and asked him about Prue. Piper had fallen apart when he told her, and nothing he said or did could ease her heartbreak.

Prue's voice brought him crashing back to reality. "Hi. Can I help you?"

Leo tried not to stare at her. "I'm...your new handyman, Leo." He held out his hand to her and she shook it.

"Nice to meet you, Leo," Prue said. "I'm Prue Halliwell. Come on in." Leo followed Prue into the Manor, looking for anything out of place. He noticed that there were pictures of the sisters and other relatives where there used to be pictures of him, Piper and Wyatt.

"Bye, Prue. I'm leaving ," Phoebe said as she headed for the door. She stopped when he saw Leo. "Oh hi. I'm Phoebe, Prue's sister."

He offered her his hand and she shook it. "Leo, your new handyman."

"Nice to meet you, Leo." She smiled at him flirtatiously. "Sorry to run out on you, but I should have left for work ten minutes ago. The grief center's going to kill me. See you later." She grabbed her purse and sprinted out the door.

Grief center? Leo searched his memory. He didn't remember Phoebe ever working at a grief center.

"You can start in the kitchen," Prue said.

"Sure. No problem." Leo replied. After giving him a list of jobs, Prue left him alone in the kitchen. Yet he wasn't alone for long.

A blue trail of lights appeared in the corner, and Hannah ran towards Leo, a look of sheer panic on her face. "Leo, I've been tracking down my charges all night. I found all of them except Wendy. Then this morning I found Wendy's mom, and she told me that Wendy was killed three years ago! How is that possible? I sensed her last night and she was fine! What's going on?"

Leo did his best to answer her calmly. "I don't know, but things are strange here, too. Piper and Phoebe don't know me, and Prue is alive. I thought I had gone back in time, but...that doesn't explain Wendy's death."

"I know we didn't go back in time," Hannah replied confidently. "Wendy's mom had a calendar. It's definitely 2007."

_There goes my only theory, _Leo thought ruefully. "Alright, we're not back in time. What if...we're in an alternate universe?"

Hannah nibbled a fingernail as she thought. "If that's true, how did we get into this alternate universe? Was it by accident, or did someone bring us here? And how can we get home?"

"Maybe the Elders can help. Have you tried orbing up there?" Leo suggested. Hannah shook her head. "Okay, try it. I'm going to stay here with the sisters."

"I'll let you know if I find something," Hannah promised as she orbed out.

_Good luck_, Leo thought as he watched her disappear. He looked again at the list Prue had given him. He decided to do each job slowly, giving him an excuse to be in the Manor for as long as possible-- hopefully long enough to gather information about what had happened. He started with the kitchen sink, then changed a few lightbulbs in the kitchen and dining room. As he replaced a broken window pane in the living room, he had the strangest sensation that he was being watched. He kept looking over his shoulder, but no one was there. _You're just being paranoid_, he told himself. Yet, as much as he tried to reason with himself, the feeling wouldn't go away. He was so preoccupied that he bumped into a rosy lamp. Luckily he caught it before it hit the floor. He chastised himself for his carelessness and went back to work.

_That was close! _Aryn thought as Leo picked her up and put her back on the table. _My cover was almost ruined._ It would have been a shame; she always made such great lamps. The Source himself had once told her that she was one of the finest chameleon demons he had ever seen. Aryn blushed as she remembered his praise and wondered if, for a brief second, her rosy lamp had become even rosier. _But there's no time to rest on my laurels, _she thought. _I have work to do. _She returned to her surveillance. She watched Leo as intently as she had been watching the Halliwells, in case he said or did anything interesting enough to report to her lover. He would be pleased to learn how well his plan had succeeded.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

If Piper ruled the earth, everyone would be as organized as she was. Jobs would be done when they needed to be done and deliveries would always arrive on time. Yet, sadly, she was not in charge of the universe, and so a delivery that should have arrived three days ago had yet to appear. She would have to call her supplier again. She had memorized the phone number by now. "Hi. May I speak to Bob, please? Yes, I'll hold. Bob? Hi, it's Piper Halliwell from Windbury's Restaurant. I still haven't received the order I placed last week. You told me days ago that it was on its way. It's still on its way? That's the best you can come up with? Look, if I can't count on you guys to be reliable, I'll have to find another supplier." She hung up.

She hated confrontations. She hated the whole business side of her job. She wished she could focus on cooking, but her co-manager, Sara, had just left for a job at Quake, and she found herself picking up the slack until a replacement could be hired. She herself had applied for a job at Quake years ago. She had made a delicious audition meal, but had run out of time and had been unable to add the final, critical ingredient. Piper was happy for Sara that she had found a better job, but at the moment she really could have used her help. They were opening in a half hour and there was so much to do. She was trying very hard not to feel stressed, but stress was a part of her personality.

"Hey, Piper. How are you?"

Piper had been so immersed in her thoughts that she hadn't even heard Tracy, one of Windbury's waitresses, come into the kitchen. "I'm okay, thanks. How are you?"

"Good," Tracy replied. "My sister Carrie came home from her trip to Europe yesterday, and so we went out to dinner to celebrate."

"That sounds fun." Piper wished that she was as close to Prue and Phoebe as Tracy was to Carrie. Yet Piper and her sisters, while they lived in the same house, were leading separate lives. Piper often left for the restaurant before either of her sisters were awake. Prue had been spending a lot of time with her boyfriend lately. Phoebe, after a long day at the grief center, often went out on the town to unwind. Thus it was rare for Piper to see them when she got home. But she didn't have time to reflect on that now. She had a hundred other tasks to worry about, including finding out if Duane, the perpetually unreliable waiter, was coming to work today. Maybe Tracy would know. "Tracy, did you see Duane come in yet?"

"No, I don't think so. Let me go check." Tracy left the kitchen and returned a few moments later, shaking her head. "No, he's not here."

Piper sighed. She had warned him that she would have to fire him if he couldn't take his job seriously. She had hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"I can call him on my cell phone if you want. That way you can concentrate on finishing your prep work," Tracy offered.

"Thanks. I'd appreciate that." Piper replied.

Tracy started to walk out of the kitchen, but turned around a few steps later. "After work, Meagan, Kelly, Gloria and me are going to that new dance club near the mall. You're welcome to join us."

"I would, but I already made plans."

"Ooohh...Going out with your boy?"

Piper laughed. "Yes, I'm going out with my 'boy'. He's taking me to dinner and then we're going ballroom dancing."

"That's so romantic," Tracy gushed.

"Yeah, he's the sweetest. He even called me this morning just to say that he couldn't wait to see me tonight."

"He seems perfect," Tracy said.

"He is. I couldn't imagine a more wonderful guy."

"Wow. This sounds serious."

"Maybe it is," Piper said teasingly.

"I want to hear all the details tomorrow. But now I should finish helping the others set up. And I'll call Duane and tell him to get his butt over here."

"Okay, thanks again Tracy." Tracy walked out of the kitchen and Piper returned to work. Her earlier worries forgotten, she was grinning now at the thought of the magical evening that awaited her. Tonight would find her in the arms of her one true love.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Prue gazed at the ancient artifact in awe. This piece had been created by a master artisan over two thousand years ago. It had outlived its creator; it had outlived all of the ancient Greeks. It had survived over two millennia of wars and plunderers, and now it stood proudly in her home office, awaiting her appraisal. Taking a deep breath, she put aside her scholarly reverence and looked at the piece critically. "The piece is an amphora," she said into her tape recorder, "likely dating to 500-400 B.C.E. It would have been used to store wine, olive oil, or grain. The design on the amphora shows a scene from Greek mythology." Prue thought back to a Hellenistic Art course she had taken in college as she remembered the story the vase depicted. "The scene is from Homer's Odyssey. Here Odysseus and his men are preparing to blind the cyclops Polyphemus, who has trapped them in his cave. The amphora is in good condition. On the bottom of the piece we see a--"

A loud knock on the door derailed her train of thought. Prue stopped her tape recorder before walking to the door and opening it. Standing in the doorway was Phoebe, looking very depressed. "Hey, Phoebs. Is there something wrong?"

"I had an awful day. I heard the most miserable stories from people." She sank onto a couch in Prue's office, lying down as if she were a patient and Prue were a psychiatrist.

"Well, Phoebs, you are a counselor in a grief center." Prue said. "Hearing miserable stories is part of your job description."

Phoebe picked up a pillow on the couch, and punched it as she spoke. "I know, and I knew when I took this job that I would see people at their worst. Still, I didn't expect that it would affect me so much. Back when I was working towards my psych degree, I imagined that I would be able to help so many people, but now it feels that, no matter what I do, it just isn't enough." She put the pillow back in its place. "Anyway, I decided to take myself out to dinner, then go over to Hot Spot. Maybe I can dance my troubles away. Do you want to come?"

Prue wished she could. She felt a little guilty that she hadn't spent much time with her sisters lately, but they were all so busy. "Sorry, I can't. I have a few more appraisals I need to finish before tomorrow, and I have a date tonight with Andy."

Phoebe didn't try to hide her disappointment. "Oh. Okay. I'll let you get back to work then." She stood up and walked toward the door.

"Phoebs, wait. Maybe Piper can go with you." Prue didn't think that Piper had any plans tonight. Hopefully she could cheer Phoebe up.

"Piper has a date tonight too," Phoebe said.

"Sorry. I didn't know." _Nice going, Prue_, she rebuked herself. _Phoebe was already depressed because of work, and you just reminded her that she's the only one of us not dating someone right now. _

"It's all right. Really. I don't mind going by myself. See you later." She walked out of the office and closed the door behind her.

_I'm sorry, Phoebe_, Prue thought. _I'll make it up to you. We'll hang out sometime soon._ She grabbed her tape recorder and went back to work.

Later that evening, after Prue had finished the necessary appraisals, she showered, changed into a black strapless gown, and put on her makeup for her date with Andy. She was waiting for him downstairs when Piper came home. "Hey, Piper, how was your day?"

"Well, Duane, one of the waiters, never showed up, and I had to call four people before I found someone who could take his shift. Plus, since Sara, my co-manager, quit, I've been basically working two jobs. Oh, and I stayed much later than I should have because Mike, one of the cooks, was sick and went home early. Other than that, it was fine." Piper paused to take a deep breath. "You look gorgeous, by the way. Another date with Andy?"

Prue nodded. "And you have another date with Dan?"

"He's taking me ballroom– oh, who's this?"

Prue turned around to see that Leo had entered the room. "This is our new handyman, Leo. Leo, this is my other sister, Piper."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Piper," Leo said. Something about Leo's facial expression made Prue suspect that he wasn't just saying this to be polite.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, too," Piper replied. Piper shook hands with him before turning back to Prue. "As I was saying, Dan's taking me ballroom--"

"Dan?" Leo repeated. "Dan Gordon?" Leo looked as if he had been punched in the stomach.

"Yes. Do you know him?" Piper asked.

"I met him once...years ago." Leo replied. Prue sensed that there was more to this than Leo was saying. "He's a ...great guy."

Piper beamed. "Yes he is. Well, I should go get ready. Nice to meet you, Leo." She raced up the stairs to her bedroom.

"So...are Piper and Dan...serious?" Leo asked Prue, confirming her suspicions that he was interested in her sister.

"They seem to be." Leo looked so distressed at her answer that she added, "But they're just dating. They're not married or anything."

"Oh. Well, anyway, I should get going. See you tomorrow." He gave Prue a forced smile and left.

Prue was feeling sorry for Leo when a few minutes later the doorbell rang. She opened the door to find her boyfriend, Andy Trudeau. "You look amazing," he gushed.

"Thank you, you look good yourself," Prue replied.

"Are you ready to go?" He asked.

"I'm ready." She put her hand in his and together they walked to his car.

Back inside the house, a rosy lamp grinned.

**Thanks for reading! All reviews are greatly appreciated.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Twenty minutes later, Prue and Andy sat in the most expensive restaurant in San Francisco. Prue had driven by it many times, but had never been inside before. It was everything she had imagined and more. Seeing all the waiters in tuxedos and the patrons dressed to the nines, she felt like Cinderella at the ball, complete with her very own prince. "Andy, did you get a promotion?" She asked him.

"No, I'm still the same handsome detective you fell in love with." He leaned across the table and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"But this place is so expensive!" She whispered.

"I know. I was originally going to take you to a fast food joint, but since you were so dressed up I thought I'd take you someplace nice." He smiled. Prue loved that smile. "I don't believe you."

"You know me too well. Okay, I wasn't _really_ going to take you out for fast food." Andy admitted. Prue pretended to look shocked. "I wanted tonight to be special. They say this place is the best, and you deserve the best."

If someone else had said that, she would have thought it was just a good line, but she knew that Andy was being sincere. "You're so sweet."

"I know." Andy said. Prue playfully kicked him under the table. Both were smiling and laughing loudly. A moment later their waiter approached, his face showing a thinly veiled look of disapproval. They composed themselves long enough to place their order. As soon as their waiter walked away, however, they started laughing again.

"It feels great to laugh after the day I had." Andy sighed.

"What happened?"

"You know that missing persons case I've been working on these past few weeks? It's no longer a missing persons case; it's a homicide investigation. They found the girl's body this morning."

Prue knew how hard he had been working on this case. He had desperately wanted to believe that they would find her alive and bring her back to her parents. "Oh, Andy. I'm so sorry."

"She was seven years old. What kind of world lets something like that happen?" Andy exhaled sharply. He was silent for a few seconds as he regained his composure. "I'm sorry, Prue. I wanted tonight to be special, and here I am depressing you with stories of murdered children."

Prue reached across the table to hold Andy's hand. "You're not depressing me. Anytime you need to talk, I'm here for you. Always."

He kissed her hand. "Thank you," he whispered. "So," he said, eager to change the subject, "how was your day?"

"It was okay. It's much better now that I'm here with you."

Andy flashed that smile she loved so much and kissed her again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Less than ten blocks away, Piper and Dan were at Antonio's Italian Restaurant. Piper loved pasta, and Antonio's four cheese ravioli was almost as good as hers. Almost. She looked at Dan across the table while they ate. She could see that something was bothering him, and she decided to confront him about it. "Dan, is there something on your mind?"

"It's nothing important."

Piper didn't believe that for a second. "It's okay. Whatever it is, you can tell me."

"Well, I don't want to seem the jealous type, but I was walking by your house today and I saw a strange guy through the window. Who was that?"

There was definitely a downside to dating your next door neighbor, Piper realized.

"That was just our new handyman, Leo."

Dan visibly relaxed. "Of course. I'm sorry I brought it up."

"You were worried I might be cheating on you?" Piper said. She was more surprised than offended.

"It's not that I don't trust you, because I do. It's just that...you're so amazing. You're beautiful, smart, talented...you've got it all. It's not hard to believe that other guys would be interested in you, and I...I don't want to lose you. I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?"

Piper believed that Dan was truly sorry. "Yes, I forgive you. You have nothing to worry about. There won't be anything between me and Leo or any other guy."

Dan grinned. "I'm so lucky to have you." He noticed that she had finished her ravioli.

"Are you ready to go dancing?"

Piper nodded. A few minutes later Dan paid their bill and they left Antonio's.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The dance floor overflowed with couples, making Piper feel slightly claustrophobic. Each couple seemed to exist in their own universe, oblivious to the outside world. Piper and Dan managed to find an open space on the perimeter of the dance floor. As the soft music washed over them, Piper resolved to lay aside all her worries. She wouldn't think about work or how she and her sisters were drifting apart. She would allow herself to live in the moment, just for once. She was starting to relax her mind when thoughts of Leo entered uninvited. How could Dan think that she was having an affair with Leo? She had only met him once. Sure, Leo was cute, but so was Dan. The more she tried not to think of Leo, the more he remained in her thoughts. _Stop it! _She yelled at herself. Yet as much as Piper cared for Dan, as much as she wanted to enjoy this evening with him, the thoughts of Leo lingered.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

While Piper and Dan were ballroom dancing, Phoebe was doing a very different kind of dancing at Hot Spot, the newest dance club in town. When she first arrived, she was greeted by a few women whom she recognized as waitresses at Piper's restaurant. Embarrassingly, they had remembered her name but she hadn't remember theirs. Now, though, she was alone on the dance floor, doing her best to lose herself in the beat of the music and forget the horrible stories she had heard today.

She tried to forget their friend Dee, whose little boy David had been kidnapped at his own birthday party. He had been found a few days later, alive but blind. Dee still felt guilty, thinking that she could have done something to protect him. She tried to forget the story of Marcy Steadwell, killed years ago by a bomb detonated in the shop she owned. Her mother was still consumed by grief, and Phoebe felt that she had failed to bring her any comfort. She tried to forget little Tyler, who had run away from a series of foster homes. He had been referred to the center for counseling by social worker Paige Matthews. In his case too, Phoebe felt she had been useless. She wished that she could do more for all of them. She fantasized that she could swoop in and magically solve their problems. She saw herself saving David from the kidnapper, Marcy from the explosion, and Tyler from his awful foster parents. She would be Super Phoebe, defeating the forces of evil and saving innocent lives. It was a nice fantasy, but she knew that things like that didn't happen in real life. A deep male voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts.

"Hi. I'm Joe. Do you want to dance?"

Phoebe turned toward the voice. Before her eyes stood a fine specimen of manhood. Joe had sparkling brown eyes, an olive complexion, and gelled black hair. His smile showed off dazzling white teeth and his face radiated kindness. "Sure," Phoebe answered. She walked with Joe to the center of the dance floor.

"What's your name?" Joe asked.

"Phoebe."

"What do you do, Phoebe?"

"I'm a counselor at a grief center."

"That must be a depressing job."

"You have no idea."

"I'm a doctor. I work at the hospital."

Phoebe thought that he looked a little too young to be a doctor, but she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. "Let's not talk about our jobs," Phoebe pleaded. "Let's just dance."

"Okay," Joe laughed. Hours later they were still dancing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Prue was surprised when Andy took a left turn instead of the right she had expected. "Andy, I thought that we were going to your apartment."

"We will, but I need to take a slight detour first. Is that all right?"

She thought that Andy sounded slightly nervous. "That's fine. Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

Prue studied their surroundings, looking for any clues which would tell her what Andy was planning. She thought that they might be heading for Golden Gate Park, and so she was secretly pleased with herself when several minutes later they arrived there. "What are we doing here, Andy?"

"Trust me." He got out of the car and walked around to the passenger side to open the door for Prue. She followed him into the park. "It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" Andy commented. Prue nodded, admiring the million stars and the full moon which shone brightly above. Yet she knew that Andy hadn't brought her out here to stargaze. She was trying to figure out what exactly he had in mind when she saw the answer to her question: a picnic blanket lying on the ground. On the blanket was a chocolate cake shaped like a heart. "So this is why you didn't want us to have dessert at the restaurant."

"That, and I'm cheap," he said, smiling. "I asked Morris to set this up for us while we were at dinner. I told him to leave when he saw the car coming."

"Remind me to thank your partner the next time I see him." They walked to the blanket and sat down. Something on top of the cake that reflected the moonlight caught Prue's eye. When she looked at it closely, she saw it was a ring.

Andy reached for Prue's hand and she gave it to him. "Prue, as a cop, I see things every day that make me lose faith in humanity. But when I look at you, I'm reminded that there is goodness in the world. I love you more than I thought it was possible to love another person, and I always will. I would be honored if you would be my wife."

Prue didn't need to think about it. "Yes, Andy." Tears of joy raced each other down her cheeks. "Yes, I'll be your wife."

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated. :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Sorry this chapter is so short; Chapter 9 will be longer. Thanks so much to piperloveleoalways, Jedi Alanna, lizardmomma and Charmed 225 for their reviews of Ch. 7. **

Chapter Eight

Leo sat on top of Golden Gate Bridge, his favorite place for contemplation. Any other night he would have noticed how wonderful everything was. Yet the starry sky, the cool breeze, and the tranquility of his surroundings meant nothing to him now. He couldn't stop thinking about Piper and Dan._ This is wrong_, his mind raged. _She picked me, she loves me! She can't be with Dan! Wyatt will never be born_! _I can't lose them both!_ He tried to calm himself. He needed to think clearly, and he couldn't do that if he let his emotions control him. He was in the middle of a breathing exercise when Hannah materialized in front of him.

"I've been working with the Elders. We think we figured it out," Hannah announced happily. "We're not in an alternate universe, Leo. We're in an alternate timeline!"

"An alternate timeline?" Leo repeated.

"Yes, and it's not just us. It's everyone on Earth. This is huge. That was the pain you felt, the timeline being changed --for the worse." Hannah paused to allow this to sink in. "It's not just Wendy, Leo. Hundreds of people who were alive before the change are now dead."

"But we weren't affected because we were up there when it happened," Leo thought aloud. "Do we know who did this?"_ It had to be a very powerful demon. Maybe Tempus?_

"I think it was a timejumper," Hannah answered.

Leo wasn't convinced. "Timejumpers are low level demons. They can jump into the past to escape upper level demons, but they can only observe past events. They're not powerful enough to interfere with the past."

Hannah talked quickly, barely stopping to take a breath. "An ordinary timejumper has only limited power, you're right. But I was doing some reconnaissance in the Underworld. There are rumors of a timejumper killing other timejumpers and absorbing their power. Maybe one can't do much, but what if one had the power of ten? Or twenty?"

"Do we know this timejumper's name?" Leo asked.

"Tarquin," Hannah proudly answered. "It took me five hours in the Underworld to get it, but it was worth it."

Leo smiled. "I told you that you would be a great whitelighter." Hannah blushed. "Alright. I'll tell the sisters about Tarquin. Hopefully they can find him and reverse the damage."

"Okay. I'll go back to the Elders and let you know if we come up with anything else," Hannah said.

"Thanks, Hannah," Leo replied.

"Glad to help," she answered. She smiled and orbed away.

Leo breathed a great sigh of relief. _This nightmare will be over soon. The sisters will vanquish him and everything will be back to normal._ He orbed to the manor's attic to consult the Book of Shadows. If Tarquin had only recently risen to power, there wouldn't be a page on him, but there might be a page on timejumpers. When he materialized in the attic, however, the Book was nowhere to be found. His panic gave way to a terrible realization. Suddenly it all made sense- why Prue was alive, why many others were dead, why none of the sisters recognized their whitelighter. In this timeline, the sisters had never become the Charmed Ones.

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated.:)**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

After a sleepless night, Leo returned to the Manor. He was trying to resist the overwhelming urge to panic. The sisters had never received their powers in this timeline. They would be defenseless if any demons attacked! He had to talk to them as soon as possible. They needed to get their powers back and restore the timeline. If they didn't, all the good they had done in the past and would do in the future would be lost. But how could he convince them of the truth? Piper and Phoebe had thought he was crazy when he said that he and Piper were married. How could he expect them to believe in witches and demons? They would think he was delusional or insane. He should wait until they knew him better, but he didn't know how much time he had before Tarquin or someone else attacked them. No, he needed to tell them right away. At the moment, however, Piper and Phoebe were at work and Prue hadn't returned from her date last night. He would wait until tonight, when all three of them would be home.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Andy dropped Prue off at the Manor after a long kiss goodbye. She couldn't wait to tell her sisters about her engagement. "Piper? Phoebe? You guys home?" she called out as she sprinted into the manor. _Please be home_, she prayed silently.

"Just me," Leo said as he walked toward her. "Your sisters are still at work. I have something important, though, that I want to discuss with the three of you when they come home."

_You're not the only one_, she thought. She doubted that Leo's news was as happy as hers. "Is there something wrong with the house? Something really expensive?"

"No, not at all."

"Good. Thanks a lot Leo for all the work you've been doing. Could I ask you for a favor?"

"Of course. Anything."

"Could you tell me when either of my sisters comes home?" She could wait until both were home, but she didn't think that she could wait that long. Plus, this way she could tell the story twice.

"Sure."

"Thanks, Leo." She went upstairs to her office. She knew that she wouldn't get any work done; she was too excited for that. Still, she could pretend. It would give her something to do until one of her sisters came home.

A couple hours later Leo knocked on Prue's office door. "Phoebe's home," he announced.

"Great. Thanks again, Leo." Her first instinct was to race down the stairs to meet her sister, but she decided to play it cool. "Phoebe?" She called out as she slowly walked down the stairs.

"I'm here," Phoebe called back. She was sitting on a couch in the living room reading a magazine.

"So, how was dinner and dancing last night?" Prue asked, hoping her voice sounded casual.

"It was nice. I danced with a hot guy named Joe. I assume that your date with Andy went well?"

"Actually..." Prue bit her lip to keep herself from smiling. "Andy's no longer my boyfriend." She looked away as if in sorrow, but really it was so she wouldn't burst out laughing.

Phoebe looked devastated. "Oh, Prue. I'm so sorry. I know--"

"He's my FIANCEE!" She shouted.

"WHAT?! CONGRATULATIONS!" Phoebe leapt off of the couch and embraced her older sister. "I'm so happy for you."

"Thank you."

" I can't believe you let me think that you two had broken up. That was very mean, Prudence."

"I'm sorry. Forgive me?"

Phoebe considered it for a few seconds. "If you let me see your ring."

Prue happily complied.

Phoebe stared at the ring. "Wow. It's not bad."

"Not bad?!" Prue cried. "What are you talking about? It's gorgeous!"

"Okay, it's gorgeous. So how did he propose? I want ALL the details."

Prue told her sister about sitting on the picnic blanket under the starry sky of Golden Gate Park and about the chocolate heart-shaped cake. Both she and Phoebe were crying by the end. Not too long after Prue finished the account of her magical evening, she heard the door open and Piper call out "Hey, I'm home."

"Stay here," Phoebe whispered conspiratorially. "Pretend like you're crying."

Prue laughed. " I am crying."

"Well, pretend they're sad tears, not happy ones." Phoebe commanded.

"Okay," Prue agreed, wondering what dastardly deed Phoebe was planning.

Phoebe ran to the door to meet Piper. "Piper, thank God you're home."

"Why? What happened?" Piper asked, her face radiating concern.

"I'm not sure, but Prue's been crying ever since she got home." Right on cue, Prue wailed loudly. Piper followed Phoebe to see their oldest sister.

"Prue?" Piper began tentatively. "What's wrong, honey?"

Prue stopped her fake sobs and held out the hand showcasing her engagement ring.

"Absolutely nothing," she answered.

Piper took a few seconds to absorb this new information, then squealed with glee. "Congratulations!!" She jumped on Prue and enveloped her in a hug. Phoebe joined in to create a Prue sandwich.

Leo came out of the kitchen towards them. "I thought I heard your voice, Piper. I'm glad that you're all here. I have something important to talk to you all about."

"More important than my sister getting married?" Phoebe asked.

Leo's face lost all color. "Which sister?"

"Me," Prue said. "I'm getting married."

"Congratulations," Leo said half-heartedly.

"This calls for a celebration. I'll get the champagne." Phoebe declared as she headed toward the kitchen.

"I'll get the ice cream." Piper volunteered, following her younger sister.

"Sorry, Leo," Prue said. "Can what you had to say to us wait until tomorrow?"

He looked reluctant, but ultimately nodded. "Sure, that's fine."

"Goodbye, then. See you tomorrow." Leo watched Prue walk to the kitchen to join her sisters. He wasn't going anywhere. He would stay in the Manor in case any demons attacked. As the night went on and he listened to the sisters celebrating, though, he felt a sharp pang of guilt. How could he ask them to restore the timeline when it meant losing Prue?


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Thanks to piperleofan, xheart to thee, Jedi Alanna, Charmed 225 and lizardmomma for their reviews of Chapter Nine!**

Chapter Ten

Phoebe couldn't remember the last time she had had this much fun with her sisters. She felt like she hadn't had a real conversation with either of them in weeks, and here they were sitting at the kitchen table, talking and laughing like best friends. They had talked like this a lot when they were younger. Back then she had assumed that they would always be close. Surely a bond as strong as theirs would last forever. Now that they were grown up, things were different. They had jobs and boyfriends and responsibilities. They didn't make time for each other anymore. Now Prue was getting married. She and Andy would have a place of their own, and someday a family of their own. Eventually she and Piper would have husbands and kids too. She and her sisters had drifted apart while living in the same house; how close would they be living apart? She sipped her champagne sadly.

"Something wrong, Phoebe?" Prue seemed to have noticed her less than festive mood.

"Things will never be the same. I'll miss you."

Prue gave her a hug. "I'll miss you, too."

"How touching," A strange male voice said.

Phoebe whirled around to see a strange man standing in the kitchen. He was about six feet tall with dark hair and eyes. There was something sinister about him that made her shiver involuntarily. She thought that maybe he was a hallucination brought on by the champagne, but her sisters were staring at him, too.

"Who are you?" Prue asked the stranger.

"I'm Tarquin," the stranger proudly announced. "And I'm about to go down in history as the one who finally killed the Charmed Ones." He moved towards Prue menacingly.

Phoebe felt a rush of adrenaline overtake her body. No one threatened her sisters! Before her brain realized what she was doing, she had grabbed the champagne bottle and hit the stranger in the back of the head. Tarquin fell to the floor, wounded but still conscious.

Leo rushed into the kitchen. "What happened? Are you all okay?" Tarquin glared at Leo and vanished into thin air.

"Where did he go?" Prue asked as she stared incredulously at the spot which only seconds earlier Tarquin had occupied. No one could answer.

"Leo, what are you doing here?" Piper asked. "I thought that you left hours ago."

"I did. I just...came back because... I remembered I had left some tools here, and I heard a loud noise. What happened?"

"This guy just appeared in the kitchen and threatened us. Phoebe whacked him," Prue looked admiringly at Phoebe, who was still holding the broken bottle, "and then he...disappeared."

"What did he say?" Leo asked. He seemed even more frantic than they were.

"That his name was Tarquin, and he was going to kill the 'Charmed Ones'. Whatever that means," Phoebe replied.

Leo took a long, deep breath. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about tonight: The Charmed Ones."

"Who are the Charmed Ones?" Phoebe asked.

"You are," Leo said. "All three of you."

"What?!" Piper said. "You're even crazier than this Tarquin guy."

"I know this will all sound strange, but please give me a chance to explain. Your mother, your grandmother, your ancestors for centuries have all been witches. Each of you has magical powers. Prue, you can move things with your mind. Piper, you can freeze things or blow them up. Phoebe, you can see the future. Each of you is a powerful witch, but together you are the Charmed Ones, the most powerful witches ever."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Prue interjected. "You're saying we're witches? With broomsticks and cauldrons and black cats?"

"Wouldn't that make us evil?" Piper added.

"Oh no," Leo quickly responded. "You are definitely on the side of good."

Phoebe couldn't believe it. Her fantasies of "Super Phoebe" were actually real? This was too good to be true. "How could we have magical powers and not know about them?"

"Your grandmother bound your powers when you were young to protect you. Originally, when you moved back to the Manor, Phoebe, you found the Book of Shadows, a book containing all the magical knowledge acquired by your ancestors. You read an incantation from the Book which gave you all your powers back. You used those powers to save countless innocent lives and vanquish countless demons."

"Demons?" Piper squeaked. "What do you mean by demons?"

"Evil beings like Tarquin," Leo answered.

"Leo, what did you mean by 'originally'?" Phoebe asked him.

"That's where Tarquin comes in. He's a timejumper, a demon who can move through time. He changed the timeline somehow so that you never received your powers. He made you normal so he could kill you. You need to accept your powers again and restore the timeline. Otherwise, all the innocents you saved will be dead, while the demons you vanquished will be alive and causing more destruction." Leo looked at the sisters hopefully. "I know this must sound crazy, but--"

"It is crazy!" Prue interrupted. "It's ridiculous. Mom and Grams weren't witches, and we certainly aren't. And how do you fit into in all of this?"

"I'm your whitelighter. I'm sort of a guardian angel for witches. It's my job to guide and protect you."

"Prue's right," Piper said. "This is insane. _You're_ insane."

Phoebe wouldn't dismiss Leo's story so easily. "How else can you explain Tarquin vanishing, if not magic?"

"It was a trick, that's all." Prue answered. "This is some kind of scam. We're not falling for it, Leo. Please leave. Now."

"Wait," Phoebe begged her sisters. "What if he's telling the truth?"

Piper looked at Phoebe as if she were five years old. "How can he be telling the truth? Witches and demons are as real as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Please leave, Leo."

Leo deflated like a popped balloon. It seemed to Phoebe that Leo took Piper's rejection more personally than Prue's. Maybe she could convince her sisters to listen to him. "But shouldn't we at least discuss--"

"There's nothing to discuss, Phoebe. Leo's either lying or crazy, and either way Piper and I want him to leave," Prue declared with a note of finality.

"All right. I'll go." Leo said dejectedly. He disappeared in a shower of blue and white lights.

"How do you explain that?!" Phoebe challenged her sisters.

"Another trick. An optical illusion," Prue answered, but she sounded less confident this time.

Leo orbed to the Elders to discuss the situation, wondering if there was anything else he could have said or done to convince the sisters. He had known they would be skeptical, but he had hoped that he could make them trust him somehow. He approached Solon and Philip with a heavy heart.

"Hello, Leo," Solon called out.

"Hello, Solon, Philip," Leo said as he stood before them. "I tried to tell the sisters about their powers and the timeline change, but they wouldn't listen. I failed."

Solon smiled kindly at him. "That's understandable, Leo. We all agree that the timeline must be restored. We need the Charmed Ones to accept their destiny so that the balance between good and evil can be maintained. But why did you expect that they would do it so quickly? Why didn't you wait to tell them until you had known them longer, until you had gained their trust?"

"I know, I should have, but Tarquin attacked them. I didn't feel that I had a choice." Leo answered.

"You let your emotions cloud your better judgment," Philip declared. "Are you sure that your haste wasn't caused by a desire to be with your little wife again as soon as possible?"

"Piper," Leo said, forcing himself to restrain his anger. "Her name is Piper." If Philip had had his way, he and Piper would have never been allowed to marry. Philip was one of several elders who had believed that their marriage would interfere with their duties. "But that wasn't why I told them so quickly. I was thinking only of their safety."

"We understand, Leo. We're not here to place blame," Solon interjected, casting a sharp glance at Philip. "We only want to find a solution to this problem. How will you convince the sisters that you're telling the truth?"

"Especially since they think that you're unbalanced," Philip added.

Leo thought carefully before answering. Just as he was about to give up, just as he was about to admit that his emotions, especially his love for Piper, had ruined everything, the answer came to him. "I have an idea."

After Leo had left, Prue and Piper continued their conversation as if nothing had happened. Phoebe, however, was thinking about what he had said: witches, a Book of Shadows, magical powers, demons. It sounded like a fairy tale. Maybe her sisters were right to think that Leo was crazy. Or maybe she was right to believe him. He had seemed so earnest, so desperate to convince them. If his story were true, she and her sisters would be able to do all the heroic things she had imagined! She could really help people in a way she couldn't as a counselor. She imagined that she was battling a demon to save an innocent life when a knock at the front door interrupted her reverie. It was rather late for visitors. Another demon perhaps? "I'll get it," She told her sisters. She grabbed another bottle of champagne just in case.

Phoebe opened the door slowly. It wasn't a demon. It was Leo, their angel/handyman. "Leo, what are you doing here?" She whispered. "My sisters will be upset if they see you."

"I know," He whispered back. "But I brought some people with me who I think you and your sisters will want to see." He stepped aside to reveal two very familiar women.

"Prue! Piper!" Phoebe yelled. "Come here! Now!"

Prue and Piper ran out of the kitchen. "What is it?" Prue asked. Then she saw why Phoebe had shouted.

Standing beside Leo were Patty and Penny Halliwell, the girls' deceased mother and grandmother.


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Many thanks to piperloveleoalways, Charmed225, -0-charmed-freak-0, Jedi Alanna and lizardmomma for their reviews of Chapter 10! I love you all!**

Chapter Eleven

"This is not happening. This is not happening," Prue repeated as if in a trance. She had to be hallucinating. She hadn't had champagne in a long time; clearly it was distorting her senses and making her see things that weren't really there.

Piper also wanted to blame the champagne. "We didn't even drink that much," She said, laughing nervously. She vowed not to drink again for a long time.

While Prue and Piper stood motionless, Phoebe dared to approach the mother they had barely known and the grandmother who had raised them. "Mom? Grams? Are you really real? Or am I going to wake up?" Phoebe felt something wet on her cheeks and realized that she was crying.

"Yes, sweetie, we're real," Patty answered.

"You don't look like ghosts. Shouldn't you be transparent and floating?" Phoebe asked, thinking of the many ghosts she had seen on television or read about in books.

Penny laughed. "Normally we would be, but the Elders have allowed us to take human form while we talk to you."

"How do I know it's really you guys?" Phoebe questioned. Her heart wanted to believe, but her mind told her that this had to be some sort of trick or cruel illusion. Dead relatives didn't just drop by to say hello, no matter how much you missed them.

"Ask us something only we would know," Patty suggested.

"All right. Grams, describe my first boyfriend," Phoebe challenged.

"Green hair. Mohawk. Tattoos and piercings all over his body. He was seventeen; you were thirteen."

Phoebe smiled at the memory. "Okay, so I was going through a bit of a rebellious stage. I wonder what ever happened to him. One day he just stopped calling me."

Grams looked very pleased with herself. "If you must know, I cast a spell on him to make him forget that you existed."

A spell? Phoebe thought. So they really were witches? As her brain struggled to process this revelation, she turned to her mother. "Your turn, Mom. Umm..." Phoebe had been very young when her mother died, so she was at a loss as to what she could possibly ask.

"What was the last thing you said to me before you died?" Prue interjected. She had finally decided that she wasn't hallucinating. The last thing she had said to her mother was "I love you", and so it had taken her many years to say those words to anyone else. In her mind Prue was transported back to that awful day. She was a child again, standing on the dock and watching men put her mother in a body bag. The police were trying to talk to her, but she heard nothing. She had known even then that, from that moment on, her life would never be the same. Her mother was never coming back. Her childhood had ended.

Patty sighed, knowing the pain her death had caused, and regretting that she hadn't been there for her girls. "I told you that I had an errand to run and that it wouldn't take long. I'm so sorry that I left you. I may not have been there when you were growing up, but I never stopped loving you." Everyone in the room, living and dead, was crying now.

"Mom," Phoebe said, savoring the word. "Grams. Since you're both in 'human form' now, can we hug you?"

"Yes, my dears. Yes you can." For several minutes the sisters took turns embracing their mother and grandmother, wishing this night would never end.

"I was watching over you, my darling daughters." Patty said. "Always."

"Always?" Phoebe repeated. The thought was as frightening as it was comforting. "Even when we were, you know, with someone?"

Patty laughed, a beautiful sound they never thought they would hear again. "Okay, not always. I respected your privacy when necessary."

"Now girls," Grams interrupted. "Your mother and I came here because we need to talk to you. Please, sit down and make yourselves comfortable. This may take a while." Prue, Piper, and Phoebe sat down on the couch.

Phoebe spoke first. "So, Grams, you said that you put a spell on my first boyfriend. So you were a witch? And Mom? And us too?"

Grams nodded. "All your ancestors have been, dating back to Melinda Warren, who was killed in Salem in 1692."

"What does being a witch mean exactly?" Piper asked.

"It means that you were born with special powers and a special destiny: to fight evil and protect the innocent," Patty answered.

"And by 'evil' you mean demons?" Prue prompted.

"Demons, warlocks, malevolent spirits, vampires...," Grams paused when she saw the horrified expressions on her granddaughters' faces, "...basically evil creatures in any shape. They have powers too, but never enough. They'll try to kill you and take yours."

"You girls thought that I drowned," Patty added. "I was really killed by a water demon, a demon responsible for several other deaths. In the original timeline, you all vanquished him." She stopped talking for a few moments to allow this to sink in. "If you hadn't destroyed him, he would have continued to kill anyone unlucky enough to be in that lake. You are heroes, my girls. You accomplished so many things as the Charmed Ones. You can't let all the good you've done be washed away."

"So all the stuff Leo said about the timeline being changed– it was all true?" Piper asked, incredulous.

"That's exactly what we're saying," Grams answered. "You were destined for greatness from the moment you were born. Receive your powers, my dears, and use them with pride. Vanquish Tarquin and fix the timeline."

Phoebe felt as if she had won the lottery. So they really were super heroes with magical powers! This was so cool! She looked over at her sisters to see their reactions. They appeared more confused than excited.

"All right, hypothetically," Prue began, "Say that we accept our powers and restore the timeline. What are our lives like there? Are Andy and I married in the 'real' timeline?"

Leo tried not to wince. "The Elders have forbidden me to tell you details about your personal lives, but I can tell you that many innocent people who have died unjustly in this timeline will be alive because you saved them, and many demons who are wreaking havoc now will be gone because you vanquished them."

"What do you say, girls?" Grams asked. "Will you receive your powers and make things right?" Leo, Patty, and Penny waited eagerly while Prue, Piper, and Phoebe sat silently in thought.

Phoebe answered immediately. Of course she would do it! "Yes."

Prue answered a minute later. "Yes."

All eyes were on Piper. She looked down at the floor. "No," she said softly.

**Thanks for reading! All comments make me ridiculously happy. :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: Thanks to Jedi Alanna, piperloveleoalways, WelshCanuck, Charmed 225, -0-charmed-freak-0, xheart to thee, anetteo and lizardmomma for your reviews of Chapter 11. You are all wonderful people. :)**

Chapter Twelve

"Mom, Grams, Leo," Prue said, looking at each one in turn, "Can you guys leave us alone for a few minutes so we can have a sisterly chat?"

"Sure," Leo answered. "If you need me, just call."

"Do angels have phones?" Phoebe asked. She wondered how much it would cost to call Heaven.

"No," Leo laughed. "Just call my name and I'll be here." He joined hands with Patty and Penny and they orbed.

As soon as they left, Phoebe spun around to address Piper. "Piper! We'll be super heroes! We'll be saving lives!" She exclaimed. "Why wouldn't you want that?"

"Do you remember Mark Wickemeyer from high school? Really smart, sweet guy, the valedictorian of my class?" Piper asked.

"Oh yeah," Phoebe recalled. "He tutored me in trigonometry."

"What does Mark have to do with not accepting our powers?" Prue asked.

"Mark was my lab partner in eleventh grade chemistry. He was obsessed with superhero comics, and so during our labs he would talk about Superman, Spiderman, Batman, and all the others. Do you know what each of them had in common?"

"What?" Prue and Phoebe asked in unison.

"They didn't have lives! Their superhero identities consumed every waking hour, and they were always lying or making excuses to the people they loved about why they missed this or that. Do we really want to live like that?"

"I don't think we have a choice," Prue responded. "It sounds like we save a lot of people. How can we say that our lives are more important than theirs?"

"Yeah," Phoebe added. "We seem to be pretty amazing witches."

"That's another thing. What do we know about being witches? Or about vanquishing demons for that matter? If we're as powerful as Grams said we were, I bet that every demon out there will try to kill us at some point. The superheroes in Mark's comics were always being threatened by someone. And do you think that they'll only attack us during business hours? Of course not. We'll have to be on guard all the time, and our relationships will suffer. Do you really think Andy will be okay with you being a witch?" Piper was beyond hysterical now. 'Hysterical' seemed calm by comparison.

"I hadn't thought about that," Prue admitted. "Andy's a really level-headed guy. I don't think he would believe me if I told him."

"Dan would think I was insane. Any sensible guy would," Piper moaned.

"But Piper, if you could just see the people I work with at the center," Phoebe interrupted. "They're in so much pain. If I knew that I could do something to help them, I think the personal sacrifice would be more than worth it."

"And we'll learn how to be witches," Prue added, "and how to vanquish demons. We'll learn together. You don't want to disappoint Mom and Grams, do you? Or all the innocent people who need us to save them?"

"No," Piper answered. "But this doesn't feel right. Yesterday we were normal people and today we're being asked to save the world."

"I'm sure that we felt the same way when we got our powers in the 'real' timeline." Prue said. "We'll get through it together."

"Come on, Piper," Phoebe pleaded . "We can't do it without you."

"You really think that we can do this?" Piper asked.

"I know we can," Phoebe said confidently. "We're the 'Charmed Ones.'"

Piper stared at her sisters for a minute before answering. "You'll keep pressuring me until I say yes, won't you?"

"Yes," Prue and Phoebe said together.

Piper was silent for a long time. "Okay," she said finally. "I know I'll regret this later, but okay."

"All right!" Phoebe shouted as she and Prue hugged Piper. "Leo! Mom! Grams!"

Leo orbed back to the Manor with their mother and grandmother. "Did you make a decision?" Grams asked them.

"Yes," Phoebe announced. "We're all willing to accept our powers and save the day."

"That's wonderful! I knew that you wouldn't abandon your destiny." Grams said. "Well, now that we did what we came here to do, we have to leave. Goodbye, my dears."

"Wait!" Prue cried out. "Do you have to leave so soon? If the Elders allowed you to be human for one day, why not two or three days?"

"Or weeks?" Piper said.

"Or months? Or years?" Phoebe suggested.

"My girls, my darling girls," Patty Halliwell said as she hugged each of her daughters in turn. "Your grandmother and I don't belong here anymore. It's your time now. Know that we're both very proud of the women you've become, and that, seen or unseen, we are always with you. Goodbye girls." Patty and Penny smiled at them, and then they were gone.

"Let me give you the spell to receive your powers," Leo said excitedly.

"Do we have to do this right now?" Piper glanced at the wall clock. "It's almost midnight."

"I'd prefer that you have them right away, before Tarquin comes back or any other demon tries to take advantage of you," Leo explained. "Are you ready?" Phoebe nodded. Prue did the same a few seconds later. Piper followed reluctantly. None of them noticed that the rosy lamp which had been standing only a few feet behind them had suddenly disappeared.

Aryn had decided that she had no choice but to risk exposure. She needed to tell Tarquin what had happened. She found him in his underworld lair, where he was massaging the back of his head. "What happened to you, my love? Are you hurt?"

"I underestimated the Halliwells. I had them cornered in the kitchen, and I was about to make my move when Phoebe hit me. Then Leo came in and--"

"The kitchen?" Aryn interrupted angrily. "You attacked them in the kitchen when you knew that I was in the living room and wanted to watch?" She remembered then why she was there. Her anger could wait. "That doesn't matter now. The Halliwells are about to receive their powers! They'll go back in time to kill you to fix the timeline!"

"Don't panic, my love. I may have missed my chance to kill them as mortals, but they won't kill me."

"How can you be sure?" Aryn asked him.

"Because I'll give them an excellent reason not to restore the timeline," Tarquin replied.

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated.**


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: Thanks to piperloveleoalways, Charmed 225, KC-Piper-fan, -0-charmed-freak-0 and Jedi Alanna for your reviews of Ch. 12:) You guys are awesome!**

Chapter Thirteen

"Just repeat after me," Leo instructed. He read the spell slowly, pausing after each line.

_Hear now the words of the witches,_

_The secrets we hid in the night,_

_The oldest of Gods are invoked here,_

_The great work of magic is sought._

_In this night and in this hour,_

_We call upon the sacred power,_

_Bring your powers to we sisters three._

_We want the power. Give us the power._

"I don't feel any different," Prue said after they had finished. "How do we know if it worked?"

"Your powers are tied to your emotions, so you'll need a strong emotion to trigger them at first. In time you'll learn how to control them. Prue, your trigger is anger." Leo motioned to a television remote on the living room table. "Think about something that makes you angry and try to move the remote across the table."

Prue thought about the year Andy had completely forgotten her birthday. Nothing happened. "Why didn't it work?"

"Maybe you weren't angry enough. Think of something else." Leo suggested.

Perhaps Leo was right. She had been more annoyed than angry at Andy. What else could she use? She thought about the time Phoebe had accidentally ruined her favorite outfit, then stared at the remote. It just lay there, mocking her and her efforts. It was understandable, she guessed. She had forgiven Phoebe for that years ago. "I can't think of anything right now," she confessed to Leo and her sisters.

"Maybe I can help," Phoebe volunteered. "Prue, there's something I've been meaning to tell you for a long time." She chuckled nervously. "Do you remember Mr. Bubbles?"

"The fish I had when I was ten?"

"Yeah." Phoebe avoided her sister's gaze, choosing instead to stare at a spot on the wall. "When you and Piper were in school one day and I was home sick, I took him out of the bowl so I could play with him. When Grams saw what had happened, we drove to the pet store to find a fish that looked exactly like him. Grams said she wouldn't tell you what happened, but that I should."

"And you're telling me NOW?! That's so typical of you!" Feeling sufficiently angry, she glared at the remote. It flew across the room and hit the opposite wall. The back of the remote fell off and the batteries tumbled out. "Phoebe Halliwell! I can't believe you are so irresponsible and-

"It worked, Prue! That was awesome!" Phoebe gushed.

"Poor Mr. Bubbles," Prue sighed, remembering her fallen friend. "Fishkiller!"

"I'm so sorry, Prue. I'll make it up to you. I'll buy you...a new pair of shoes."

"Two pairs."

"Now you're just getting greedy."

"Poor, innocent Mr. Bubbles. Poor, defenseless, dead Mr.--"

"All right! Two pairs. But you're not getting a Christmas present this year," Phoebe declared. "Let's test Piper's powers next. What's her 'emotional trigger', Leo?"

"Panic."

"Panic," Phoebe repeated. "I can provide that." She picked up an elegant crystal vase holding a bouquet of flowers Andy had sent to Prue.

"Phoebe, what are you doing with Mom's vase?" Piper asked accusingly.

"Nothing." Phoebe raised the vase above her head and dropped it.

"NO!" Piper intuitively threw her hands forward. The vase stopped falling, defying everything she had learned in high school physics. She stared at it in disbelief for several seconds. "Did I just do that?"

"Yes, you did," Leo smiled.

"Hey, Leo, how long will this last?" Phoebe asked. She had barely finished the question when the vase started to fall again. She caught it just in time and put it back where she had found it. "No harm done," she said quickly to avoid Piper's wrath.

Yet Piper wasn't ready to let her younger sister off the hook just yet. "Phoebe, what if I had blown it up instead? Leo, didn't you say that I could freeze AND explode things?"

"Yes, but you won't receive that power until you master your freezing power."

"Oh, goody," Piper said sarcastically.

"My turn!" Phoebe exclaimed. "Okay, Leo, what's my trigger? How do I get myself to see the future?"

"I'm sorry, Phoebe, but you can't make yourself have a premonition," Leo looked at her sympathetically. "You'll develop an active power later, though: the ability to levitate," he added in an attempt to console her.

Phoebe wasn't consoled. "Prue gets to send things flying, Piper gets to freeze, and I get to hover a few feet above the ground? Figures. The youngest always gets the leftovers."

"So what do we do now, Leo?" Prue asked.

"Go to bed?" Piper said hopefully.

"Let's see if we can find the Book of Shadows first," Leo suggested. "It might have information on vanquishing Tarquin. You found it in the attic originally. Evil can't remove the Book from the house, so it's likely still there, only hidden."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"We've looked everywhere, Leo, and still haven't found this 'Book of Shadows,'" Piper complained after the sisters had searched the attic. "I'm not even sure what it is."

"It's a collection of spells, information on magical beings, recipes for vanquishing potions... all the magical wisdom gathered by your ancestors. In fact, why not try to write a spell to find it?"

"How about 'Come out, come out, wherever you are'?" Piper quipped.

"They usually rhyme," Leo said.

"I'll think of one," Phoebe offered. She sat in an old rocking chair for a few minutes as she thought. "Okay," she said as she leapt out of the chair excitedly. "I've got something."

_Book of Shadows_

_Hidden from me,_

_Show yourself_

_So all may see._

The Book instantly appeared. Phoebe approached the precious tome reverentially. As she touched the cover, a vision overwhelmed her senses. She saw Tarquin watching her read from the Book, reading the same inscription that she and her sisters had just said. Suddenly time seemed to rewind itself. Now Tarquin was alone in the attic. He said a spell and the book disappeared from sight. Gasping, Phoebe returned to the present and saw her sisters' concerned faces.

"What happened?" Prue asked.

"I just had a vision! I saw the past! I saw Tarquin hiding the Book!" Phoebe exclaimed. "He looked so smug, too. I can't wait to see the look on his face when we vanquish him." She started flipping the pages eagerly, expecting to find a page on Tarquin any second. Yet a hour later she hadn't found any mention of him. Prue had fallen asleep in the rocking chair, while Piper slept on an old couch .

"You might not find anything on him," Leo said as he sensed Phoebe's frustration. "After all, he only gained power recently."

Phoebe refused to give up. Several minutes later her search finally came to an end. "Hey, I think I found something!" she shouted. "Prue, Piper, wake up!" Her sisters reluctantly got up and walked towards her and Leo. "It's a page on timejumpers," she explained to her sisters. "Leo, you said that Tarquin was a timejumper, right?"

"What does it say, Phoebs?" Prue yawned.

"Timejumpers are low level demons with the ability to travel forward or backward in time," Phoebe read. "They have never been known to interfere with the timeline..."

"Until now," Piper grumbled.

"...and do not have enough power to pose a serious threat," Phoebe continued. "However, if it becomes necessary to vanquish one, the following potion may be used." Phoebe scanned the list of the potion ingredients. "This doesn't look too difficult."

"But things are rarely as easy as they seem," a familiar male voice commented. Startled, the sisters and Leo looked up from the Book and saw Tarquin standing in front of them.


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: Thanks again to piperloveleoalways, Jedi Alanna, Charmed 225, -0-charmed-freak-0, lizardmomma and xheart to thee. You are exceptional people. :)**

Chapter Fourteen

"Planning to vanquish me, are you?" Tarquin smiled at the looks of surprise on the sisters' faces. "How ungrateful. You should be thanking me."

"For what? For trying to kill us?" Prue sneered.

"For giving you normal lives, naturally. In the original timeline, you did nothing but vanquish, vanquish, vanquish. Every up and coming demon wanted to prove himself by killing you. You all yearned for a return to normalcy-- especially you, Piper. You would have given anything just to spend time with your husband and family."

"I was married?" Piper asked.

Tarquin laughed. _This was too perfect_. It had taken him longer than he anticipated to find and kill a demon with the power of astral projection, but being here now, able to taunt the sisters with his knowledge of the original timeline, made it all worthwhile. "Leo didn't tell you? I'm not surprised. Whitelighters can be so dishonest. Yes, you were married, and I'm sure it's just killing your husband that you're not his in this timeline." He resisted the urge to look at Leo, lest he give the game away, but he knew that the whitelighter must have been squirming. "Apparently there's a lot about the original timeline that you don't know."

"Don't listen to him!" Leo shouted. "Freeze him, Piper!" Piper threw her hands forward, but nothing happened. Prue tried her powers against him with the same result.

"Oh please," Tarquin spoke as a parent addressing an ignorant child. "Did you really think that I would be stupid enough to appear before you in person? Your powers can't harm my astral self."

"Well, when we go back in time to restore the timeline, we'll vanquish the real you," Phoebe boasted.

"Believe me, you don't want to restore the timeline." _Go on_, Tarquin mentally encouraged them, _ask me why_.

"Why not?" Prue asked.

"As I said earlier, there's a lot about the original timeline that you don't know, things that your whitelighter conveniently forgot to mention. For example, Leo, would you like to tell your charges about Paige and the circumstances behind her introduction to the Halliwell family?" He could almost taste the whitelighter's fear. "If you don't tell them, I will."

"Paige is... a long-lost relative," Leo answered slowly.

"And where did they meet Paige?" Tarquin devilishly prompted. During the months he had tried to develop a perfect plan to defeat the Charmed ones, he had gathered, with Aryn's help, all the information he could about them. So he knew that Piper and Phoebe had met Paige at Prue's funeral. Leo was silent. "Well, Leo?" Tarquin relished the whitelighter's obvious torment. He hadn't had this much fun in years.

"The Elders... have forbidden me to tell you details about your personal lives."

"Of course. They knew that if you knew the truth you would never fix the timeline," Tarquin said. He studied the sisters' reactions. He could see that they didn't want to believe him, but they were curious.

"You're lying," Prue snapped.

"Can you be so sure of that? Tell me, Prue, when Leo first saw you, did he seem surprised?" He imagined that the whitelighter wouldn't have been able to hide his shock entirely upon seeing a dead charge resurrected.

"They won't listen to you, Tarquin," Leo interrupted. "You might as well leave now."

Tarquin ignored Leo and spoke directly to Prue. "I was right about Leo being surprised to see you, wasn't I? It's not every day that the dead came back to life."

"What?!"

"In the original timeline you don't exist anymore. You were killed by Shax, the Source's personal assassin." He paused to enjoy the distraught look on Prue's face. "If you vanquish me and restore the timeline, you'll be dead. Oh, and your fiancee will be too. Go ahead, whitelighter, tell them I'm lying." Taking one last look at the horrified expressions of the sisters, Tarquin disappeared.

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated.**


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: Thanks to WelshCanuck, piperloveleoalways, -0-charmed-freak-0, Charmed 225, lizardmomma, Jedi Alanna, and KC-Piper-fan for your reviews of Ch. 14. You are amazingly awesome.**

Chapter Fifteen

"Is it true, Leo?" Prue struggled to hold back tears. "Did Andy and I die in the original timeline?"

Leo felt as if his heart had been pierced by a darklighter arrow. Although the Elders had forbidden him to tell the sisters about Prue's death, he couldn't lie to her. He opened his mouth to speak but no sound emerged. He nodded instead.

"What happened to Andy?" She demanded. "Was he killed in the line of duty?" She had always been afraid that he would die that way.

"He was killed by a demon. He died protecting you and your sisters," Leo answered.

Prue collapsed into the old rocking chair and started crying. Phoebe rushed to her sister's side and held her. Phoebe tried to offer some words of comfort, but Prue didn't hear any of them.

Piper glared at Leo. He was grateful that she had yet to receive her power of explosion. She couldn't have killed him, but it would still hurt, yet perhaps not as much as the look she gave him now. The eyes that had once smiled at him with love were now filled with rage. "How could you NOT have told us? You would have let us restore the timeline and kill our sister? What kind of guardian angel are you?" she shouted. She couldn't believe this was really happening. Only a few days ago, she had led a normal life. Now she was a magical witch fighting demons, one of whom had just announced that her sister had been killed in the 'real' timeline. This was too much to handle. She raised her hands to the sides of her head to massage her aching brain.

"Piper, it wasn't my choice. The Elders--"

"I've heard enough about these Elders," Piper interrupted angrily. "They didn't lie to us, Leo, you did. If restoring the timeline means killing Prue, I won't do it."

"But that's what Tarquin wants! He told you to save his own life! You have to think of the greater good!"

"I don't care. You can't ask us to kill our sister." She turned away from him and started to walk towards Prue. In her mind the conversation was over.

Leo walked after Piper. He put his hands on her shoulders to stop her. "Don't forget that you saved a lot of lives as the Charmed Ones. Don't forget that the demons you vanquished are alive now and continuing to kill innocents!"

She spun around to face him."If we're powerful enough to save all these innocents, why weren't we able to save Prue?"

Leo knew that no answer he could give would satisfy her. "Because...sometimes evil wins."

Piper's anger lessened and was replaced by sorrow. Leo desperately wanted to wrap his arms around her and tell her that everything would be all right, even if he wasn't sure it would be. "How did it happen?" she asked.

"You and Prue were protecting a doctor, so you brought him back to the Manor, and--"

"Wait," Phoebe interjected. Leo had almost forgotten that Prue and Phoebe were in the room. Phoebe was still kneeling at Prue's side, trying in vain to console her sister. "What was I doing?"

_You were in the underworld with Cole, your demon boyfriend, who later became your human fiancee, who later became your Source-of-all-Evil husband_. Leo decided that was more information than Phoebe needed right now. "You were...out of the area. Anyway, Shax, a demonic assassin, entered the Manor and sent you both flying into the walls. I healed you, Piper, but I couldn't heal Prue."

Leo had omitted a great deal. He hadn't said that he had healed both sisters the first time Shax had attacked, after Phoebe called for him. When Prue and Piper recovered, they followed Shax into the street and vanquished him, only to have their feat recorded by a local television crew and their magic exposed to the world. Reporters and curious onlookers besieged the Manor. One wiccan wannabe had even shot and killed Piper. Leo had been in the underworld with Phoebe, arranging a deal with the demon Tempus to re-set time so that the magical world would remain secret. The deal required Phoebe to remain in the underworld, but she agreed to save Piper. Tempus had rewound time to moments before Shax's attack. Without Phoebe's help, and with no warning of what was to come, Prue and Piper were again left for dead. This time, Leo could only heal Piper. Leo felt that he was right to tell them only sparse details; they had enough to deal with already.

"Why couldn't you heal her, Leo?" Piper asked accusingly.

She had asked him the same question years ago. "I tried Piper, believe me I tried, but there was nothing I could do." He saw the familiar pain and anger etched in her face and again was powerless to comfort her.

"I think you should leave now." She turned her back to him and moved toward her sisters again.

"Please, Piper," he begged, stepping in front of her. "Please let me help you." He reached out for her hand.

"Don't touch me. You couldn't help Prue then; I don't want you helping us now." She tried to walk around him, but he moved to block her path.

"Piper, I love you... and your sisters," he quickly added. "Don't send me away. Let me protect you."

"If you really love us, do as I ask and leave us alone!" she cried.

Leo knew that it was useless to argue with her when her mind was made up. "Okay, I'll leave. If you need me, though, I'll be there for you." He orbed out of the attic, watching the woman he loved disappear behind a shower of white lights.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Leo stood on the top of Golden Gate Bridge, looking down at the lights of the cars traveling below him in the darkness. He often came here to think. He had just told the Elders what had happened, and Solon had suggested that Leo use whitelighter dust again to erase the girls' short-term memories. Leo had argued that doing so would also make them forget they were witches. They would be vulnerable if Tarquin or any other demon attacked, and if word got out that the sisters were new to their powers, he imagined that many demons would line up to try their luck. He had assured the Elders that the sisters would eventually do the right thing, even knowing the consequences.

Privately, however, he wasn't so sure. What if they never restored the timeline? What if he never got his family back? In Piper's mind, he had failed them by letting Prue die and then had lied about it. Would she ever come to trust him in this timeline? Would she ever love him? Tarquin had told her that she was married, but she probably thought that Dan was her husband, not her lying, unreliable whitelighter. He fell asleep on the bridge and dreamed that he saw Piper and Dan in the manor playing with their children. Now Piper was kissing Dan the way she used to kiss Leo. Leo burst through the front door and yelled at the happy couple: _Stop! This isn't the way it's supposed to be! _They looked at him and laughed. _Get out of here pal_, Dan said. _This is my life now_. The manor and its occupants disappeared from sight, and Leo was left alone in a dark void.

In another dream Wyatt appeared to him. Leo ran towards his son, expecting to embrace him. The more he ran, however, the further away Wyatt seemed. _Wyatt! Wyatt! It's me, daddy_! He called out, but Wyatt wouldn't look at him. _What's wrong, son?_ The toddler replied with the voice of the adult Wyatt: _What's wrong?! You screwed up, and now I'll never_ _exist! I hate you! _Wyatt started to fade. _Wait! I'm sorry! _Leo yelled. _I'm so sorry! Don't leave!_ It was too late. Wyatt was gone. Leo awoke the following morning feeling as if he hadn't slept at all. He was wondering how he could possibly live without Piper and Wyatt when he thought he heard Piper's voice in his mind. Was he imagining it? He listened to the voice closely. It was definitely Piper, and she was calling for help.


	16. Chapter 16

**AN: Thanks again to my most loyal reviewers: piperloveleoalways, Charmed 225, -0-charmed-freak-0, Jedi Alanna, lizardmomma and xheart to thee. You guys rock!**

Chapter Sixteen

"I'm still mad at you," Piper told Leo when he arrived, "but Phoebe needs your help." In truth, she was more scared for her sister than angry at him. Phoebe was sprawled across the floor, an athame plunged into her chest. Leo grabbed the athame by its ornately decorated silver handle and pulled it out, quickly putting his hands over the gaping hole it left behind. In seconds the wound disappeared and Phoebe opened her eyes. "Thank God!" Piper cried. "Thank you, Leo."

"You're welcome." He took Phoebe's hand and helped her stand up.

"Are you okay, Phoebs?" Piper asked. "For a moment there, I thought that you were--"

"I'm fine. I bet we get life-threatening injuries a lot in our line of work, right, Leo?" She was trying to laugh it off, but Leo could tell she was shaken by her near-death experience.

"Sometimes," Leo admitted. "Though you've never let fear stop you from fulfilling your destiny."

"Enough with this destiny crap, Leo. If fulfilling our destiny means killing Prue, I won't do it. I almost lost one sister; I'm not going to lose another," Piper declared.

"Where is Prue?" Leo asked.

Piper motioned to the ceiling. "She's in the attic, checking the Book to see if she can ID the demon who attacked us."

"What happened?"

"Oh, you know, this demon materialized out of nowhere and threw a knife at Phoebe. I froze him, Prue sent him flying through the window, and he vanished into thin air. A perfectly normal day."

"I found him!" Prue shouted triumphantly as she came down the stairs holding the Book. "Xantias," she read, "is a low-level demon whose weapon of choice is the athame. He has been known to attack and kill novice witches..."

"Yeah, that'd be us," Piper interrupted.

"...but will flee from a fight," Prue finished. She closed the Book shut.

"It didn't say anything else?" Phoebe asked.

"No, sorry," Prue answered. She went to the attic to put the Book back, then came downstairs to join her sisters.

"So we don't know how to vanquish him and he could come back at any moment," Piper summarized. "This day keeps getting better and better."

Leo heard a familiar ringing in her mind. Perhaps the Elders had information for him. "I have to go. The Elders are calling."

"Wait!" Piper said. "What if Xantias comes back while you're gone?"

"Just stay calm and trust your instincts. Remember that together you are the most powerful witches in the world. You can do this." And with that he orbed.

"Trust my instincts?" Piper scoffed. "My instincts told me that we should never have gotten into this mess."

"C'mon, Piper, being a witch isn't THAT bad," Phoebe said, trying to lighten her sister's mood.

"This from someone who just got stabbed in the chest?" Piper asked.

"Okay, so our lives will be a little more dangerous now. We can't stop living them." Phoebe said this in the same tone she used as a grief counselor.

"Phoebe's right. We'll be fine. We'll--" Prue stopped herself when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It whizzed by her head and hit the wall, burning it on impact. "What was that?"

"Your death," came the reply. The sisters whirled around and saw another demon, not Xantias the novice-witch killer, standing in their living room. With a flick of his wrist, this new demon sent a lightning bolt in their direction. Piper froze him. The lightning bolt hung menacingly in mid-air.

"To the attic!" Prue yelled. As the sisters raced upstairs, the demon unfroze. He continued his attack on the fleeing sisters, scorching parts of the banister and pictures on the wall. Prue, Piper, and Phoebe sprinted into the attic and slammed the door shut behind them. They knew that they didn't have much time to plan their next move. "Should we call Leo?" Piper asked.

"No," Prue answered resolutely. "He said that we could do this. Just think...a spell...maybe we can write a spell..."

"Right now?" Phoebe could hear footsteps coming up the stairs.

"You're the one who wanted to be a witch... think of something!" The attic door flew off of its hinges, and the sisters fled to the far corners of the attic, taking cover wherever they could.

From her hiding place, Phoebe tried to think of a spell. "Uh..lightning demon, go away, come back another day?" She said hesitantly.

A lightning bolt missed Piper's arm by only a few inches. "I don't think that worked, Phoebs. Try something else!"

The demon came toward Phoebe, throwing a bolt with every step he took. How could she write a spell in these conditions? He came so close to her that she could smell his breath. It was the worst smell she had ever had the misfortune of experiencing. She was strangely inspired. "Demon with the horrible breath, we send you to a fiery death!" she shouted. Unimpressed, the demon aimed a lightning bolt directly at her head. It singed her hair as she leapt to avoid it. What now? Phoebe thought. Leo's words came back to her. Together they were the most powerful witches in the world. Together.

"Prue! Piper!" Phoebe screamed as she and sisters dodged more bolts. "Say it with me!" Prue and Piper braved the line of fire to join hands with Phoebe. Together they chanted: "Demon with the horrible breath, we send you to a fiery death!" The demon laughed at the sisters' crude spell-- but not for long. He watched in horror as flames consumed his feet, then moved up his legs. He barely had time to scream before his whole body was engulfed in flame. Then he and the flames were gone. "We did it!" Phoebe yelled. "We vanquished our first demon!" The sisters embraced each other.

Several minutes later, Leo returned to the Manor. "What did the Elders say?" Phoebe asked.

He looked close to tears. "They told me that Hannah, a fellow whitelighter, had been killed by a darklighter, the same one that killed her predecessor William. You vanquished him in the original timeline." He wiped his eyes with his hand.

"I'm sorry, Leo," Prue said.

Leo took a minute to compose himself. "Was everything okay here?

"Better than okay. The Charmed Ones have vanquished their first demon," Phoebe said.

"That's great! I knew Xantias was no match for you."

"Oh, it wasn't Xantias," Phoebe answered. "It was another demon."

"Another one? Who?"

"Who cares?" Piper retorted. He'll never throw another lightning bolt at anyone ever again."

"Still, we should find out what we can about him. Maybe he was working with Tarquin."

The sisters agreed to check the Book. After a few minutes of flipping, they found him: Fumenes, thrower of lightning bolts. "What does it say about him?" Leo asked.

Phoebe scanned the page. "Nothing really, just that he's a low-level demon who can throw lightning bolts."

"Another low-level demon?" Leo asked.

"Is that bad?" Piper thought that an upper level demon would be worse, though she wasn't sure she understood or wanted to understand the hierarchy of the demon world.

"Well, it's just that normally a low-level demon would be hesitant to attack at the Manor, and you've had two attack in the same day. The Underworld must know that you're new to your powers. You'll have to be very careful."

"We will," Phoebe promised. "Tonight, though, we should celebrate our first vanquish. What do you guys say to a sisters night out?"

"That sounds great, Phoebs, but Dan and I have dinner plans," Piper apologized.

Prue also looked apologetic. "Andy called this morning asking if I wanted to go out tonight. I said yes. Sorry, Phoebs."

"It's okay. I can go to Hot Spot again. I met that hot doctor there last time," Phoebe bragged.

"Are you sure that it's a good idea to split up?" Leo asked, worried.

"We can handle it," Prue said. "After all, we vanquished Mr. Lightning Bolt. Maybe that will show them that we're not as weak as they thought."

"At least try to stay in public places," Leo entreated. "Demons will be less likely to attack there."

"That might ruin Prue and Andy's after dinner plans," Piper muttered.

"Don't worry, Leo," Prue told him. "I'm sure that we'll be fine." She wasn't sure of anything. She wanted to look forward to her night out with Andy, but she couldn't stop thinking about what Tarquin had said. If she saved the world, she would kill herself–and the man she loved.

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated. :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**AN: Thanks to Charmed225, -0-charmed-freak-0-, piperloveleoalways, Jedi Alanna and lizardmomma for your reviews of Chapter 16. You're awesome!**

Chapter Seventeen

"Prue, are you having second thoughts?" Andy anxiously asked his fiancée across the table.

Prue had been furtively glancing around the restaurant, wondering if a demon would attack during the course of the evening, and so she had missed Andy's question. "I'm sorry. What did you say?"

"Second thoughts," Andy repeated. "Are you having second thoughts?"

"Of course not. Piper recommended Antonio's highly," Prue answered. "She said that their food was almost as good as hers."

"Not about the restaurant." Andy laughed. "About our wedding."

"Definitely not. I love you, Andy Trudeau, and nothing will ever change that. Why would you even have to ask?"

"It's just that you've been so distracted this evening. I'm a cop, Prue. I can tell when someone's hiding something. What were you thinking about just now?"

_That there's at least one demon out there right now plotting to kill us. That we'll never be safe again. That if I do the right thing and restore the timeline, saving all the people we're supposed to save and preventing the demons we vanquished from killing more people, we'll both be dead. We'll never get married or have a family. We'll never get to watch our kids grow up. We'll never grow old together. We'll leave this life while in our prime... just like Mom_. These thoughts and hundreds more had plagued Prue all evening, but she answered only "Nothing important."

"C'mon Prue. You can tell me anything. Don't you remember our last dinner together?"

"At the restaurant where a drink of water cost more than my car payments? The one we ate at before you proposed? No, that night wasn't particularly memorable," she joked, hoping to deflect Andy's concern.

"Very funny. You told me then that you would always be there for me when I needed to talk. Let me do the same for you. Please, Prue." He reached across the table and put his hand on top of hers. "Please tell me what's wrong."

Prue hesitated. A few days ago, she wouldn't have thought that there was anything she couldn't tell him. Now, though, she had a secret that no one outside her family could understand. How could she tell him the truth? Yet she needed someone to talk to, and Andy was a very special someone. "All right...what if, hypothetically, you knew that you were going to die?"

"We're all going to die, Prue, one way or another, sooner or later."

"Yes, but what if it was sooner? If you knew when and how?"

For a terrifying second Andy's heart stopped. "Oh my god. Are you dying? Whatever sickness you have, you can fight it. You're the strongest person I know. Don't give--"

"No, it's not like that." She quickly interrupted. "It's just that--" She stopped herself, unsure as to how she could possibly explain.

"Just what?"

_Just that a demon showed up at my house and told me we're supposed to be dead, and we will be again if my sisters and I fix things. Then my guardian angel confirmed it._ "Just that I...had a dream...in which both of us were killed. It felt so real."

Andy started breathing normally again. "A dream? You're upset because of a dream?"

"But I know that this dream will come true."

Andy thought for a moment that she might be pulling some kind of practical joke, but he had known her long enough to know that she was genuinely upset. "How do you know?"

"I just do. I don't want to die, Andy, but I have to in order to make things right. Yet I can't bear the thought of you dying, too." Her eyes started to fill with tears, and she didn't fight them.

Andy moved to her side of the table and held her close to him. "Don't cry. Everything will be fine."

"No, it won't."

"You really believe in this dream, don't you? Okay, for curiosity's sake, how do we die?"

"We're both killed protecting others."

"Really? I can't imagine a better way to go." Prue knew that he meant it. "If that's what will happen, so be it."

Prue stared lovingly at her fiancée. Her hero.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dan had taken Piper to the most romantic restaurant in San Francisco. On top of their gleaming white tablecloth stood two red candles, their flames seemingly dancing to the soothing instrumental music in the background. Their tuxedoed waiter approached the table and refilled their wine glasses.

"Are you enjoying your meal?" Dan asked her.

"Yes, thank you," she answered between mouthfuls. It was a lie. The food was excellent, but she barely tasted it. She kept thinking about the demons who had attacked the house. Fumenes would never hurt them again, but what about Xantias or the hundreds of other demons who might come after them? She looked over at Dan. What would he think if she told him the truth about what had happened to her today?

"Dan, do you believe in the supernatural?" Piper blurted out. She wanted to find out how accepting Dan would be of her new identity.

"You mean aliens? UFOs? That kind of thing?" Dan looked as if the question had left a bad taste in his mouth. "I didn't think that you were into that stuff."

"I'm not. I just wondered if you were."

"No, I don't believe in that junk. I'm glad that you don't either." He stopped to drink some of his wine. "I had a girlfriend once who did. I think she was crazy. I wouldn't want to date someone like that again."

Piper's heart sank. Dan wouldn't want her if he knew she was a witch. What guy would? _Leo would_, her mind answered. She had been thinking about Leo a lot lately. She had been attracted to him from the start, but lately her attraction had been more than physical. She had sensed that he would do anything to protect her and her sisters. He was generous, caring, loving... Piper suddenly stopped herself. Was she falling in love with Leo? Was she even allowed to love an angel? And did he love her? He looked at her differently than he looked at her sisters, and he always had such a pained expression whenever she mentioned Dan.

"Piper?" Dan's voice jolted her from her thoughts. "You looked like you were in another world just now." When she didn't answer, he added, "Is something wrong?"

_Yes_, she thought, _there is something wrong. Dan has been the perfect gentleman, while Leo lied to me about Prue's death and who knows what else. But I think I'm in love with Leo_.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Phoebe glanced around the dance floor enviously. No one else at Hot Spot knew that they lived in a world besieged by demons. They were enjoying themselves completely unaware that the monsters under their beds and in their closets, the monsters of their imagination, were real. What if a demon attacked her right now? She forced herself to take several deep breaths. It would be okay. She could take care of herself. After all, hadn't she written the spell to vanquish Fumenes, or, as Prue had called him, Mr. Lightning Bolt? She happily replayed the showdown in her mind, smiling at how his arrogant look had quickly turned to one of horror when the spell began to take affect. She was Phoebe Halliwell, Charmed One and Destroyer of Evil, and she would celebrate her victory with a night of dancing and drinking. Determined now to have a good time, she scanned the dance floor, looking for a familiar face. Maybe she would see Joe, the hot doctor she had met last time. As she continued to scan the floor, she found a pair of eyes staring back at her. They weren't Joe's.

They belonged to the sexiest man she had ever seen. She felt an instant connection to this stranger. Had she met him before? Definitely not; she would have remembered that meeting. As she walked toward him and he came closer to her, she felt that she knew him intimately. If she hadn't met him in this life, had she known him in another? She didn't think she believed in past lives, but now the idea seemed more than reasonable. Or, if not another life, what about another time? _Yes_, Phoebe decided. _I knew this man in the other timeline_. Only inches away from her now, he offered her his hand. She readily took it. From that first touch, she knew that they were meant to be together. All other thoughts vanished from her mind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Feeling more like a parent than a whitelighter, Leo anxiously waited for the sisters to come home. He wished that they had chosen to stay at the Manor, or go out together, but he wouldn't force them to do anything against their will. An hour ago he had secretly checked on each of them. They all appeared to be fine. He was sitting in the living room, praying for their safety, when he heard the door opening and closing. The sound filled him with relief. At least one of the sisters was home. He walked to the door and silently rejoiced at seeing Piper in the doorway. "I'm...happy you're here," he said awkwardly.

"Thanks," she answered. "Leo, can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Tarquin said that in the original timeline, I was married. It seemed trivial after learning about Prue, but now I need to know. Who was I married to?"

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated. :)**


	18. Chapter 18

**AN: Thanks so much to piperloveleoalways, PiperandLeoFan101, -0-charmed-freak-0-, Charmed225, xheart to thee, lizardmomma, Charmed 12373 and WelshCanuck for your reviews of Ch. 17. You are fantastic fans.**

Chapter Eighteen

Leo suddenly wished that he had Piper's power to freeze time. Piper stood facing him, her eyes seeming to search the depths of his soul, waiting for an answer to her question. What could he say? More than anything he wanted to tell her the truth. At this very moment, he had the opportunity to declare himself as her husband, wrap his arms around her, and give her a kiss she would never forget. But how would she react to the truth? She would probably be angry that he hadn't told her sooner. How could he have told her, though, when she didn't even know him? Learning about her destiny had been more than enough for her to handle. Then she had been furious at him for not telling them about Prue's death.

Would she be upset too that she was married to him and not to Dan? She and Dan appeared to be seriously involved. When he had gone to check on Piper, he had found her and Dan at a romantic restaurant. Piper's back was to him, but he saw Dan's face. Dan was looking at Piper with such affection that Leo could feel his heart breaking. If he told Piper the truth and she rejected it, just as she had the idea of restoring the timeline, his life would be over. Before he told her, then, he would have to find out how she felt about him. "Who do you think you're married to?" He said finally, replying to her question with one of his own.

Piper was surprised at Leo's response. If he were her husband, as she suspected, why hadn't he jumped at the chance to admit it? Maybe it was because these Elders he kept talking about had forbidden it. What if she were wrong? What if she had misinterpreted Leo's glances, confusing concern with love? Maybe she was throwing away her relationship with Dan for nothing. She remembered a time in high school when, after weeks of gathering the courage to tell a boy she liked him, he had laughed in her face. She didn't think Leo would laugh at her, but she didn't want to admit her feelings for him until she was reasonably sure he felt the same way. "At first, I thought it might be Dan," she began. She saw a wounded expression cross Leo's face again at the mention of Dan. "But then I remembered Tarquin saying that it must be killing my husband that we weren't married in this timeline, and how would Dan know the timeline had been changed?"

"You really love Dan, don't you?" Leo asked sadly. He remembered the dream he had where Piper and Dan had been playing in the Manor with their children.

_I thought I did_, her mind answered. Yet she responded, "Dan's a great guy. We're very close. In the other timeline, Leo, were you and I..." She wanted to say "close", but at the last second she chickened out and said "...good friends?"

"Yes." _And much more_, he added mentally. "We were very good friends. And I hope that we are in this timeline, too."

_Friends?_ Piper lamented. _Was that it? _"I do consider you a good friend, Leo."

_Friends?_ Leo lamented. _Was that it? _At least she no longer seemed to hate him. "I'm glad to hear it." They stood facing each other for several long, uncomfortable seconds, each hoping the other would make the next move.

Piper couldn't endure the silence any longer. "Well...I guess I should go to bed. Good night Leo."

"Good night." Leo watched her go up the stairs and wished that he were going with her, going to their bed. He couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't spend another night dreaming about her and waking up with nothing. He had to tell her how much he loved her. "Piper...wait."

She stopped in the middle of the stairs and turned to face him. "Yes?"

"I--"

"Hey guys!" Phoebe called out. Leo hadn't even heard the door open. "I want you to meet-" Leo, turning around at the sound of Phoebe's voice, received the shock of his life. "Cole?!"


	19. Chapter 19

**AN: Thanks to piperloveleoalways, -0-charmed-freak-0-, Jedi Alanna, WelshCanuck, charmed12373, Charmed225, xheart to thee and lizardmomma for your reviews of Ch. 18; they brighten my day. Hope this makes up for the last chapter being so short!**

Chapter Nineteen

Belthazor had been surprised and, frankly, a little disappointed to learn that he had met his death at the hands of witches. He had been tracking his latest victim when he had sensed that someone was trying to summon him. The call was weak, so he knew that the summoner had limited powers. Why would someone so powerless dare to summon the mighty Belthazor? Curious, he decided that the innocent he was tracking would get to live a little while longer while he answered the summons, heard the reason behind it, and killed the summoner for his insolence.

Shimmering to the source of the call, Belthazor raised his eyebrows at the sight of the pathetic demon standing before him. The summoner was obviously a low-level demon, the kind Belthazor often practiced his powers on when he was bored. "Who are YOU to summon ME?" Belthazor demanded.

"Tarquin," the summoner proudly answered.

The name sounded familiar. "Oh, you're the one they say changed time so some witches wouldn't get their powers."

"Not just any witches. The Charmed Ones. The most powerful witches in the world."

"Whoever. I heard that Xantias was bragging that he'd killed one of them." If weak Xantias had been able to kill one, Belthazor didn't see how these witches could be so powerful.

"He didn't. He failed me, just as Fumenes did. All three witches are alive, and they'll become stronger every day. They're becoming accustomed to their powers more quickly than I anticipated. Eventually, they will try to restore the timeline. Great Belthazor, you have the opportunity to stop them—before it's too late."

"Too late for what?"

"For you. In the original timeline, the Charmed Ones vanquished you."

"Witches? Vanquished ME? I find that hard to believe." Belthazor had killed many witches in his lifetime, and few had been worthy opponents. "I know what you're trying to do. You're telling me this so that I'll kill these witches for you."

"Yes," Tarquin admitted. "But it's true. I can prove it."

"How?"

"I'm a timejumper. I'm able to travel to any time I wish, even to a timeline that no longer exists. I can show you the original past. Just take my hand." Belthazor was initially disgusted at the thought of touching this inferior creature, but, giving into curiosity, he touched Tarquin's hand. A whirlwind enveloped the two demons, and when it dissipated, Belthazor saw his past self talking to a young, attractive woman. He had introduced himself as Assistant District Attorney Cole Turner, the identity he held in the human world, and he was asking her if she had witnessed the crime he was investigating.

"What's going on? Can they see us?" Belthazor asked.

"No, they can't see or hear us. I thought that you might want to start at the beginning. This is your first meeting with Phoebe Halliwell, the youngest Charmed One. You were ordered by the Triad to kill the Charmed Ones, so you planned to get to them through her."

"How clever of me."

"Yeah, you had some brilliant schemes. Let me show you one." Another whirlwind later, Belthazor saw himself in what appeared to be the 1600s. He was wearing period clothes and talking to a pregnant woman. "You tried to corrupt their entire line by going back in time and ensuring that this baby, their ancestor, would be raised by evil. Fantastic. And then you tricked Prue into becoming an empath, knowing that the power could destroy her and thus the Power of Three. And another time you had Andras, the spirit of Rage, turn the girls against each--"

"Enough!" Belthazor could see that Tarquin had done a lot of research and was eager to show off his knowledge, but he didn't have all day. "Speed it up, timejumper."

Tarquin inhaled deeply, then said in one breath, "You fall in love with Phoebe, kill the Triad, your demon half is vanquished, you become the Source, you get married, she finds out, she kills you, you come back, she kills you again."

Belthazor was momentarily stunned as he tried to process all of this information, but he kept his face calm. He had married a witch? And she had killed him? Twice? "Show me everything," he ordered. Dutifully, Tarquin showed him the entire course of his relationship with Phoebe.

"You even altered the past, just as I did, to be with the woman you loved." Tarquin said after they had seen his second vanquish and returned to the present. "But she rejected you again and helped her sisters kill you. You have a chance now to get revenge, to kill the sisters before they restore the timeline and kill you."

Before Belthazor could react, Tarquin vanished. He thought about all the events Tarquin had shown him. He had seen himself smiling and laughing with this woman, happier than he had ever thought possible. He had seen himself giving up his demon half for her. He had seen himself changing the universe to be with her. He had done all this for a witch? Clearly she was more than your average witch. After all, she had lied to her sisters about vanquishing him. She had even been his Queen in the underworld. He had seen how much they loved each other, and he had fallen in love with her all over again. Why hadn't it worked out? Maybe he had underestimated the bond she had with her sisters. Now, though, he had a second chance– not for revenge, but for love.

Assuming his human identity, Cole Turner, he searched all of San Francisco for Phoebe, finally finding her at Hot Spot. They had connected immediately, and she had invited him back to the Manor in what promised to be the start of a new life for both of them. Yet the one person who could ruin everything was standing in front of him. Cole had recognized Leo from his trips to the past. He had seen that he was a whitelighter and married to Piper. From the shocked look on Leo's face, it seemed that Leo recognized him as well. If Leo had been unaffected by the timeline change, he could tell Phoebe everything. The whitelighter had positioned himself in front of Piper to shield her from him. He looked now at Cole with fear and mistrust. "Phoebe, step away from him."

"What's wrong, Leo?" Phoebe asked.

"Nothing's wrong," Cole answered. "Leo, can I talk to you someplace private?"

"All right." Leo seemed to like the idea of getting Cole out of the house. He walked down the stairs and touched Cole's shoulder, orbing him to the top of Golden Gate Bridge.

"Please, Leo," Cole begged as soon as they had rematerialized on the bridge. "Don't tell Phoebe about the past."

"Are you crazy? How can you expect me not to tell her that she's dating a demon, especially one who hurt her so badly?"

"I love Phoebe, and I never meant to hurt her."

"But you did," Leo answered bitterly.

"I know, but I have a second chance now to make things right. Phoebe and I deserve to be together. I love her as much as you love Piper."

Cole saw Leo's face soften at the mention of Piper. The whitelighter was silent for a few seconds, but ultimately he shook his head. "I'm sorry, Cole, but I can't lie to Phoebe about what you are. Or what you did."

"Damn it, Leo! I didn't have to ask nicely, you know! I know plenty of darklighters who would be willing to kill you for me. But I won't ask them to, because I know that the girls need you. Phoebe would be vulnerable without you, and I won't do anything to hurt her ever again. I'll do anything for her." He stopped to judge Leo's reaction, and seeing he still looked unconvinced, he continued. "Let me prove my goodwill. Xantias was bragging about how he had attacked the girls. Is that true?"

"Yes. He almost killed Phoebe."

"Oh really?" Cole felt his whole body shake with anger. "Wait just a minute." He shimmered into the Underworld and quickly found Xantias. He grabbed him and shimmered back to the bridge. There, in front of Leo, he killed the novice witch killer with a single fireball. "I can help you protect them, Leo. I'll protect my love and yours. Believe me, they need it. I know what Tarquin's planning."

"What? What is he planning?" Leo asked.

"Promise to keep my secret and I'll tell you." Cole waited for a response, but Leo was silent. "Do you want to be able to save your wife or not? You can't do it without me."

"All right Cole, I'll keep your secret."

"Good, then I'll keep my end of the deal. Tarquin summoned me today to show me how the girls vanquished me in the original timeline. Why? Because his low level friends couldn't kill them, and he was hoping that I would take the job. But why stop at one upper level demon? One might fail, and he wouldn't want to take any chances. He'll tell _all_ the upper level demons they vanquished, and sooner or later, each of them will try to kill the girls, either out of revenge or simply to stop them from reversing the timeline."

"Oh my god. We need to warn them." Leo put his hand on Cole's shoulder to orb them back to the Manor. When they arrived, Phoebe smiled at Cole and he smiled back. He really did love her, and he was ready to kill any demon who wanted to harm her. Nothing would stop them from being together in this timeline. Of course, the sisters might try to restore the original timeline. He would do everything in his power to prevent that from happening.

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated.:)**


	20. Chapter 20

**AN: Thanks to piperloveleoalways, Jedi Alanna, WelshCanuck, and lizardmomma for your reviews of Ch. 19. You guys are terrific!**

Chapter Twenty

Prue lay next to Andy in his bed, enjoying the feel of his body close to hers. He had just fallen asleep, and she watched him tenderly as she waited for her own body to drift into a pleasant slumber. Yet her mind, as it often did when she was anxious about something, was keeping her awake. She used to worry about her job, about making enough money to cover their expenses and maintain the manor, and (before Andy came back into her life) about whether or not she would ever find a decent man. Those things seemed so trivial now. Now she worried about her sisters being killed by forces of evil. Now she worried that she didn't have the strength to restore the timeline, knowing that it would save the lives of innocents but end her own life and Andy's. Prue knew the meaning of sacrifice better than most people. After all, she had sacrificed much of her childhood to help Grams with her sisters after their mother died. Even so, the thought of knowingly going to her own death was a daunting one. She had always feared that she would die young, just as her mother had. Now she knew she would. She allowed herself a rare moment of self-pity. It wasn't fair. She and Andy deserved a life together. They deserved—

The shrill ringing of Andy's phone scattered her thoughts. Andy stirred and mumbled. Someone who knew him less would think it was gibberish, but Prue knew that he was trying to say that he would answer it. Prue, however, was grateful for an excuse to escape her depressing thoughts. "Don't worry." She told him. "I'll get it." She stifled a yawn as she picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Prue? It's Piper. We have an emergency. We need you to come home right away."

Prue's mind imagined a thousand terrifying scenarios. She felt her fatigued body flood itself with adrenaline. "Are you okay? Is Phoebe okay? What happened?"

"We're fine. For now. But apparently Tarquin's going to tell all the demons that we vanquished in the original timeline how they died, and so they'll be coming to kill us."

"Leo found this out?"

"No, not Leo. Cole."

"Who's Cole?"

"This guy Phoebe picked up at the dance club."

"Huh? Is he a whitelighter, too?"

"I don't know. He didn't say much about himself. But Phoebe trusts him."

"Of course she does. Okay, I'm coming home. Bye."

"Bye." Piper answered.

As Prue hung up the phone she turned to look at Andy. He was sitting up in bed, looking at her with genuine concern. "I heard you asking about your sisters. What's wrong?"

"Just a minor family crisis, but I have to go home." Prue began to get dressed. She tried to remember where she had left her shoes.

"Do you have to go?" Andy put on his best puppy dog expression.

Prue sighed. Why did he have to make this any harder? If only she could tell him why she had to leave. "Yes, I have to go." She leaned over the bed to give him a kiss. "I'll call you tomorrow." She started to look for her shoes and nearly tripped over them. She sat on the edge of the bed and put them on.

"I love you." He said with a kiss.

"I love you too." She started to head for the door.

"Hey, wait," Andy said. "I heard you say something about a whitelighter. What's that?"

"Oh that. It's nothing." She hoped the conversation would end at that, but knew Andy would persist.

"Come on, Prue. Tell me. Otherwise I'll have to arrest you for failing to cooperate with an officer of the law." He said playfully.

"My sisters would bail me out," she retorted.

"I'd arrest you again," he countered.

"I'd run away before you could," she said with a smirk.

"Then I would look for you, and I wouldn't stop until I found you." He gave her a quick kiss on her cheek. "So, what's a whitelighter?"

Prue knew that she had to tell him something. "It's...a code word...that my sisters and I use to talk about guys. A whitelighter is a really sweet, wonderful guy. A guardian angel."

"Am I your whitelighter?"

"Of course. But I HAVE to go now. I love you." She rushed towards the door.

"Drive safely, okay?" Andy said as she touched the door knob.

" I will," Prue answered. Despite the seriousness of the situation, she almost laughed. The possibility of a car accident was the least of her worries.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Prue, thank God you're home." Piper hugged Prue tightly as soon as she walked into the Manor.

Prue followed Piper into the living room, where Leo and Phoebe were sitting on the couch. Prue noticed that her youngest sister seemed to be glowing. She hadn't seen Phoebe this lovestruck since high school. Leave it to Phoebe to find love at a time like this! "So, Leo," Prue began, shifting her attention to the present emergency. "Do we know anything more than what Piper told me on the phone? Do we know how or when these guys will attack?"

"No, but Cole left to see if he could find out."

Prue turned to face Phoebe. "Cole's this guy you met at the club?" Phoebe nodded. "And how did Cole find all this out?"

"He said that he'd been spying in the underworld."

"How do we know that he's not a demon?" Prue noticed Leo looking very uncomfortable. Phoebe, however, didn't seem concerned. "He's a magical being, just like we are. But I knew somehow- it's probably related to my power of premonition- that we'd met before, that we were close in the original timeline. And would I have dated a demon?"

Prue thought of Phoebe's track record with bad boys, but chose not to answer. "Were Phoebe and Cole close, Leo?"

"Yes. Very." Leo didn't make eye contact with Prue.

Yet Phoebe didn't notice, or chose not to notice, Leo's subdued tone. "See?" she said triumphantly. Noticing the wary look in Prue's eyes, she continued. "Come on, Prue! He's an assistant district attorney! Demons don't have real jobs, right Leo?"

Again Leo's reply was terse. "Some do."

"Oh. Still, Cole's amazing, you'll see." As if on cue, Cole shimmered into the room. Prue had to admit that he was handsome, though at the moment he looked a little worse for wear. A gash on his arm was bleeding, and his breath came in gasps. "NOW."

"What?" Prue asked.

Cole took a second to catch his breath. "They're coming now. They were only waiting for you to come home." Sure enough, the room began to fill with a frightening array of evil beings. Horrified, Cole realized as he looked around that Tarquin hadn't stopped at upper-level demons. There were dark priests and darklighters, sorcerers and shape-shifters, banshees and bounty hunters. He also recognized grimlocks, spirits, warlocks, vampires, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and the Source of All Evil himself. Standing behind them all, grinning, was Tarquin. The sisters, Leo, and Cole were surrounded.

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated. :)**


	21. Chapter 21

**AN: Thanks to piperloveleoalways, Christine Ruud, WelshCanuck, -0-charmed-freak-0-, Charmed225, lizardmomma, and Jedi Alanna for your reviews of Ch. 20. You rock!**

Chapter Twenty One

"This is bad. REALLY bad," Phoebe said as the living room filled with demons and other monsters.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Piper snapped.

"All right, we can do this," Prue said, struggling to keep her voice calm. "We're the most powerful witches ever, right? Right?"

"Right," Piper and Phoebe mumbled. The three sisters stood in a line. Leo stood on one end, next to Piper. Cole stood on the other end, next to Phoebe. They stared at the Underworld Army. The Army stared back, sizing up the sisters and their companions.

"So these are the Mighty Charmed Ones?" A voice from the middle of the army rang out. "They don't look so mighty to me." Laughter spread through the ranks.

"Is that Belthazor?" A second voice asked.

"It is!" Another answered. "He's betrayed us!" The demon who spoke surged forward, ready to strike, but Cole was ready. He threw a fireball which instantly engulfed his would-be attacker.

So it began.

The sisters dodged a volley of fireballs, energy balls, lightning bolts and athames. Prue sent her attackers flying through the air into the walls of the Manor. Piper froze anyone she could. Phoebe, wishing now more than ever for an active power, had to rely on more traditional fighting skills. She kicked the first demon who came towards her in the groin. When he doubled over in pain, Cole finished him off with a fireball. Leo was too busy trying to avoid darklighter arrows to be able to help the sisters . At one point in the fighting, Leo saw Tarquin grabbing a lamp, moving it out of harm's way. What was that? Leo wondered. Another darklighter arrow flew past him, missing him by mere centimeters. He would worry about Tarquin later. If there was a later.

Meanwhile, Piper had just ducked behind a frozen grimlock to avoid a energy ball. The grimlock was hit instead. Piper had a jolt of inspiration. "Prue, Phoebe, use them against each other!" she yelled. Taking her sister's advice, Prue used her power to deflect a fireball into another demon. She then reversed the course of an athame so that it struck its owner, and sent another attacker flying backwards to topple other demons. Phoebe, seeing a demon and a warlock on either side of her, preparing for the kill, moved at exactly the right moment, causing the two to accidentally kill each other. The sisters' tactics slowed the Underworld Army, but there were simply too many of them.

"We need to get out of here NOW!" Phoebe yelled.

"I'll take Phoebe," Cole volunteered. He took her hand and the couple shimmered out of sight.

"Piper! Prue! Take my hands!" Leo yelled. As soon as he felt the sisters' hands in his, Leo orbed the three of them out of there. The sisters watched their home, now overrun with an army of evil, disappear before their eyes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Belthazor?! I can't believe I'm dating a demon!" Phoebe yelled.

"A little louder, Phoebs. I don't think everyone in the hotel heard you," Piper teased. Since the Manor was besieged, the sisters, Leo, and Cole had rented a couple hotel rooms.

"Former demon," Cole corrected her. "You saw how the other demons attacked me, and how I attacked them back. I'm not on their side anymore. I'm on yours."

Phoebe wanted to believe that Cole was sincere, but a part of her remained suspicious. Cole could see that his love wasn't entirely convinced.

"Let me earn your trust again. Leo and I will go back to the Manor and bring the Book of Shadows back."

"Why does Leo have to go?" Piper asked.

"Because Cole can't touch the Book," Leo answered. "I can grab it while Cole takes care of any demons guarding it."

"If we bring back the Book, will you trust me? All of you?" Cole asked, his eyes focusing on Prue, who clearly mistrusted him. The sisters nodded. The two men then orbed/shimmered back to the Manor.

"Prue, please don't say I told you so," Phoebe begged. "You were right about Cole being a demon. You're always right. I promise that I'll never doubt you again. Will you forgive me?"

Prue hugged her youngest sister. "Of course. And who could blame you? He is kinda cute."

"Hey!" Phoebe pretended to be angry. "Back off! You've got your own man."

"Do you think Leo will be okay?" Piper asked, not having paid much attention to her sisters' conversation. "I mean, he doesn't have powers like Cole."

Prue and Phoebe exchanged knowing glances.

"What?" Piper looked at each sister in turn. "I can't be concerned about our whitelighter?"

"Are you in love with Leo?" Phoebe asked.

"What?!" Piper stammered. "No," she lied.

"Too bad," Phoebe replied. "Because he's definitely in love with you."

"Why do you say that?" Piper asked, hoping it sounded like a casual question.

"Lots of things. The way he looks at you. The way--" Phoebe stopped mid-sentence when she saw Cole and Leo returning. When the two men had fully materialized, the sisters could see that Leo was holding the Book.

"The Manor is still crawling with demons," Cole reported."They're staking it out, waiting for you to come back. It wasn't easy to get this," he said, motioning towards the Book.

"I knew you could do it," Phoebe gushed, giving him a kiss.

Prue took the Book from Leo and started flipping through it.

"Anything on vanquishing a whole army?" Piper asked as she looked over Prue's shoulder.

"That's not what I'm looking for," Prue replied.

"What are you looking for, then?"

"This," Prue answered. "The vanquishing potion for a timejumper. If we go back in time and vanquish Tarquin before he changes the timeline, the army will never exist."

"You and Andy will also be dead," Phoebe pointed out.

"So will all the demons we originally vanquished, while all the innocents we saved will be alive."

"But Prue--" Piper began.

"If we don't restore the timeline," Prue interrupted, "that army will kill us all sooner or later."

"We don't know that," Piper argued. "There has to be another way."

"There isn't," Prue said firmly. "We have to do this."

"We don't want to lose you, Prue," Phoebe said through tears. "You've been a mom and a sister to us. You've always been there when we needed you. Always. We love you."

" I love you guys, too." Prue was crying now.

"Then don't leave us," Piper pleaded, brushing away her own tears.

"I don't want to. Believe me, I don't. But it's the only way to save the innocents we're supposed to save. It's the only way I can save you both." For several minutes, the sisters held each other without saying a word. Leo and Cole excused themselves to give them some privacy.

"What do we have to do?" Phoebe said finally.

"We just have to make this potion and say a spell to go back in time. I looked at the ingredients. They're all common things I can buy at a grocery store. I'll go shopping tomorrow morning, we can make the potion tomorrow afternoon, and restore the timeline tomorrow night."

"So soon?" Piper asked.

"The sooner we do this, the less time that army has to kill us," Prue answered. "Tomorrow night, then?" Her sisters didn't answer. "We have to do this. It's our only choice. Tomorrow night, then?"

Piper and Phoebe felt physically ill at the thought, but they nodded.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I underestimated them," The Source said as he walked around Halliwell Manor. "Although they are inexperienced, together they are powerful."

"What will we do, then?" One of his minions asked. The Source couldn't be bothered to remember his name.

"What victorious leaders have done for millennia: divide and conquer." The Source smiled. By tomorrow night, all three witches would be dead.

**Thanks for reading; all comments are greatly appreciated. :)**


	22. Chapter 22

**AN: Thanks to piperloveleoalways, Charmed225, WelshCanuck, lizardmomma, Lord umbrex, rikkukirst, and Jedi Alanna for your reviews of Ch. 21. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.**

Chapter Twenty Two

"Did you sleep well?" Prue asked her sisters the next morning. She had barely slept at all. She had always found it difficult to sleep in a strange bed, but she doubted that she would have slept much better at home. The image of the Underworld Army attacking her and her sisters confronted her every time she closed her eyes. She hoped that the hotel made a decent pot of coffee.

"Not really," Piper answered. "What about you, Phoebs?"

"Not at all. I couldn't stop thinking about what we're going to do today." Phoebe stared at the floor so that her sisters wouldn't see the tears in her eyes. _There has to be a way to fix the timeline without losing Prue. I can't let my sister kill herself! _She felt Prue and Piper staring at her, and so was grateful when the ringing of Piper's cell phone diverted their attention from her.

"Hello?" Piper answered.

"Hi, Piper. It's Dan. I'm glad I finally reached you. Do you ever check your messages?"

"Oh, sorry Dan. I've been...busy."

"I understand. I really need to talk to you. Can I meet you somewhere?"

"Umm...hold on." _I need to break up with him in person_, Piper thought. _He deserves that at least_.

Piper put the phone down to talk to her sisters. "Dan wants to meet me."

"Go for it," Phoebe prodded. "It doesn't take three of us to buy potion ingredients."

Piper returned to the phone. "Okay. How about Golden Gate Park?"

"That would be great. In a half hour?"

"Fine. See you then," Piper said. She closed her cellphone shut.

"Are you sure it was really Dan?" Prue asked. "What if it's a trap?"

"I thought about that. That's why we're meeting in a public place. Don't worry. I'll keep it quick and be back in plenty of time to help you guys make the potion." Piper put on her shoes and grabbed her purse and jacket.

"Are you going to tell Dan that you're in love with Leo?" Phoebe teased.

Piper ignored her. "I'm going to call Windbury's to tell them I can't come in today. Phoebe, you might want to call the grief center," she said on her way out.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Prue opened it to find Leo and Cole.

"Come in," she said.

"I just came to see how you were doing," Leo said. He looked around the room expectantly. "Where's Piper?"

"She just left to meet Dan," Phoebe told them. She noticed that Leo always had a pained expression whenever anyone mentioned Dan.

"I came to see if you would have breakfast with me," Cole said to Phoebe. Phoebe turned to Prue for approval.

"Go ahead. I can buy the potion ingredients myself," Prue offered.

"You would be safer if you stayed together," Leo warned.

"Don't worry, Leo," Phoebe said. "Piper's meeting Dan in a public place, Prue will be shopping in a public place, and, wherever we go, Cole will protect me." Smiling widely, Phoebe left the room with Cole.

"Just call me if you need me," Leo said to the sisters.

"Thanks, Leo," Prue said as she watched him orb. She was alone now. In the silence of the hotel room, troubling thoughts plagued her. Would she and her sisters be killed _before_ they could restore the timeline? Were there demons after them at this very moment? Of course, if everything went as planned, she would be dead anyway. Yet her sacrifice would save her sisters. _Don't think about that now_, she told herself. _Just concentrate on the potion_. She grabbed her purse and left the room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Only two more ingredients to go_, Prue said to herself. She put the list back in her pocket and pushed her shopping cart down the aisle. She was in sight of the second to last ingredient when her phone rang. She took it out of her purse and checked the caller id. It was Andy. Prue hesitated. She didn't want to talk to him because she didn't want to be reminded of how her decision to restore the timeline affected him. She suppressed a pang of guilt and put the phone back in her purse. A minute later, it rang again. It was Andy again. She decided that it must be important. Taking a deep breath, she answered the phone.

"Andy?"

"Prue. Thank God you're there. I'm in my apartment. You need to help me. Please, I--"

His voice was suddenly replaced by the dial tone. Prue abandoned her shopping cart and sprinted into the parking lot.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

"Are you enjoying your breakfast?" Cole asked.

"Yes. And the company, too." Phoebe smiled. Every moment she spent with Cole confirmed her belief that he was "the one". She had known it from the moment she met him at Hot Spot. Yet she didn't need her power of premonition to tell her that something was troubling him. "Is something wrong, Cole?"

"No," he answered quickly. "Not at all." He flashed his charming grin. "When you're finished, there's someone I want you to meet, a woman who shares your gift. She told me that she had something important to show you."

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure exactly. She said it was a vision about us. About our future."

Phoebe was intrigued. "Okay. Well, I'm almost done. Just give me another--" Her ringing cell phone interrupted her. "This might be one of my sisters; I have to answer it."

"Hello?"

"Phoebe? This is Alison Porter from the grief center."

The grief center! Phoebe had forgotten to call them as Piper had suggested. "I'm so sorry I forgot to call this morning. I...haven't been feeling well and so--"

"Phoebe, we have a situation down here," Alison interrupted. "A young woman is threatening to kill herself unless she can talk to you."

"I'll be right there." Phoebe explained the situation to Cole, who promptly paid their bill. She leapt up from the table and Cole followed her.

"What if it's a trap?" Cole asked.

"What if it's not?" she answered.

"All right. But I'm coming with you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was raining in Golden Gate Park, and so the couples on picnic blankets and the kids playing with dogs and all the other park goers Piper had expected to see were nowhere to be found. She was completely and utterly alone. _Why am I even here? _A part of her wondered. When they restored the timeline, Dan would never even know they had this conversation. Still, she needed closure for herself. She had to tell Dan that her feelings had changed, and that wasn't something she was willing to do over the phone.

She thought she saw a figure moving beside the tree line. "Dan?" she called out uncertainly.

"Over here, Piper," the figure answered.

Her instincts told her something was wrong. She moved towards him, growing more uneasy with each step. _There's no reason to be afraid. I can do this, I can do this_, she told herself. _If I have to, I can freeze him and run_. She stopped about five feet away from him.

"It's great to see you, Piper," Dan said.

"You too," Piper answered nervously.

"Why don't you come closer?" Dan asked. "You're not afraid of me, are you?"

"No, of course not." She managed a weak laugh.

"Thanks for agreeing to meet me so soon. I really appreciate it." Dan said.

"No problem," Piper replied. That sounded like Dan, but something seemed off. Was she being too paranoid? She tentatively took a step forward. "What do you want to talk about?"

He didn't answer but moved towards her slowly. He reached out his hands to hold hers and leaned in her to kiss her. Piper instantly knew that something was wrong. As Dan kissed her, she began to feel weaker and weaker. _This isn't Dan!_ Her mind screamed. _It's a demon, and he's __sucking the life out of me, and I can't freeze him because he has my hands! _Piper felt her life slipping away. _I can't give up now! _Summoning all her remaining strength, she stomped on his foot. In surprise and pain, the demon momentarily loosened his grip on her hands. That was all she needed. She freed her hands from his and froze him. She took a few seconds to catch her breath, then ran as fast as she could. Seconds later she heard him unfreeze behind her. She turned around to freeze him again, but he didn't stay frozen long.

"You can't outrun me, witch!" The demon yelled.

Piper wasn't going to take his word for it. She ran and ran across the park, ignoring the pain in her chest and legs. Suddenly she was on the ground. She had tripped in the wet grass. The demon stood over her, laughing. "Prepare to die, witch. But don't worry. Your sisters will be joining you shortly."

An intense anger replaced Piper's fear. _How dare he threaten my sisters!_ "NO!" she screamed. She threw up her hands and, to her and the demon's surprise, she blew him up. She had received her new power just in time. Shaking, she sat on the ground for a minute. She had been sure that the demon would kill her and that she would never see her sisters again– or Leo.

"Leo!" she called. He orbed to her immediately.

"Piper! Are you all right?"

She didn't answer, but ran to him and wrapped her arms around him. "I love you," she whispered.

"I love you, too," he answered.

Piper no longer had any doubts about who she was married to in the original timeline.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Prue raced to Andy's apartment, praying that she wasn't too late to help him. "Andy? Andy?" she called out as she opened the unlocked door. Her eyes darted around the apartment. Finally she saw him. He was lying motionless on the floor beside his bed. She rushed to his side.

"Oh my god." _This is all my fault. Why didn't I answer the phone earlier?_ "Andy? Can you hear me?"

He slowly opened his eyes. "Prue?"

Prue had never felt so relieved. "I'm here. Are you hurt?"

"I'm not sure. This...this thing came out of nowhere and attacked me. I can't wait to track it down and kill it."

Alarm bells sounded in Prue's mind; Andy wasn't one to embrace revenge. And what had he been doing in his apartment anyway? "Andy," Prue began cautiously. "Why aren't you at work?" She knew that he took his job very seriously.

"I took a day off. I tried dropping by the Manor to see if you wanted to go out, but no one answered the door. Where have you been?"

"My sisters and I were...visiting Grams in L.A.," Prue answered, knowing that the real Andy would recognize her lie.

"I see. So, are your sisters still there? Where are they now?"

Convinced now that this Andy was an impostor, she used her power to throw him against a wall. He recovered quickly, picking himself off the floor and rushing at Prue. Prue tried to throw him backwards again, but this time he was ready. He held up a hand and blocked her power.

"You can't use your power on me anymore, witch," he taunted. "I'll kill you and your sisters."

"No," Prue said firmly. "You won't." She couldn't use her power against him, but she could still use it on other things in the room. She sent Andy's bed, desk, and other furniture flying at her attacker. These things slowed him down, but he kept coming. He threw an energy ball which knocked her to the ground. On the floor something shiny caught her eye. It was a letter opener that had been on Andy's desk.

"Say goodbye, witch," the demon said, forming a massive energy ball in his hand.

"Goodbye," she said– as she used her power to send the letter opener into his head. The demon howled in pain and fell to the floor. His body vanished before Prue's eyes. Calling the real Andy to make sure he was okay, Prue hurried back to the grocery store. At this very moment demons like the one that had just attacked her were out there killing people. She had the chance to strike back at them. No one was going to stop her from making this potion and restoring the timeline.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

"Phoebe! Thank God you're here!" Alison exclaimed when Phoebe and Cole entered the grief center. She brought them to a frightened looking teenage girl. "Claudia," Alison addressed the girl. "This is Phoebe. I'll be in my office if you need anything, Phoebe," Alison said before she walked away.

"Have we meet before, Claudia?" Phoebe asked.

"No," the girl answered quietly.

"Then why did you ask for me?"

"You helped a friend of mine. She said you were the best. Can I talk to you in your office?" Noting Cole, she added, "Alone?"

"Sure. Right this way." She led the girl to her office and motioned for her to go in. Cole followed them.

"I'll be right outside if you need me," Cole said.

"Thanks." She gave him a kiss and entered her office, shutting the door behind her. "Okay, Claudia, why don't you tell me what's on your mind."

Claudia only smiled. "Stupid witch," she muttered. In a split second Claudia had transformed from a frightened looking teenager into a hideous monster with fur all over her body and razor sharp claws and teeth. The monster leapt at Phoebe, aiming for her jugular. Phoebe threw herself to the ground to escape the monster's attack. "Cole!" she screamed. Cole ran into the room and threw a fire ball at the beast. The creature exploded on impact.

"Phoebe, are you okay?" He put his arms around her protectively.

"Yeah. Thanks to you."

They held each other for a few minutes before Cole spoke. "Can I introduce you now to the woman I was telling you about earlier?" When Phoebe nodded, he took her hand and they shimmered to the Underworld.

Yet Phoebe didn't know she was in the Underworld. She saw what she was supposed to see: a richly decorated, attractive house. The woman was waiting for them.

"Phoebe, this is the Seer. Seer, Phoebe," Cole said.

"It's nice to meet you, Phoebe. May I speak with you alone for a minute?" Since the last person who had asked to speak with her alone had turned into the big, bad wolf, Phoebe was naturally suspicious. She turned to Cole.

"Don't worry," he assured her. "This one won't try to kill you, I promise."

"Okay, then," Phoebe agreed. She followed the Seer into an elegant, spacious room. "Cole said that you had a vision about us," she said when the Seer motioned for her to sit down.

"Yes, a vision that I would like to share with you."

"Can you do that?"

The seer laughed. "I am a powerful seer, my dear. I can do many things. Give me your hands."

Phoebe did as she was told. For a few seconds she didn't think it was working. Then the images flooded her brain. She and Cole getting married. She and Cole honeymooning on a tropical island. She and Cole in a hospital room, holding their baby. Now she saw her daughter taking her first steps and going to her first day of school. Now her daughter was ten or so, playing in Golden Gate Park with mom and dad. Now she was twelve or thirteen, performing in a school play and playing soccer. Now she was sixteen, dressed in a silky purple dress, standing next to a young man in a tuxedo, getting in a limo to go to their junior prom. Now she was eighteen, walking across the stage in a graduation robe. When the vision ended, Phoebe was short of breath. Not only had she seen her daughter grow up, she had felt it.

"That was...amazing," Phoebe gushed, although 'amazing' didn't even begin to describe it.

"Our little girl was so beautiful and smart and talented and...perfect."

"I must warn you that the future you saw is in grave danger."

"Why?"

"In the original timeline, Cole died prematurely, leaving you childless. If you restore the timeline, you'll kill your future husband–and your daughter."

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated and loved. :)**


	23. Chapter 23

**AN: Thanks to piperloveleoalways, Jedi Alanna, -0-charmed-freak-0-, and rikkukirst for your reviews of Chapter 22- you guys are awesome!**

Chapter Twenty Three

Aryn gleefully stretched her legs. Now that evil controlled the Manor, there was no need for her to maintain her disguise. She was no longer a lamp, but a living, breathing, and, she proudly added, attractive young woman. She walked around the Manor, making her way past the demons on stake-out duty, in search of Tarquin, her lover and her hero. He had saved her life when she had almost been blasted in the battle by moving her into another room, far away from the fighting. Peering into every room, she finally found him. He was standing with several other demons, talking and laughing as if they were old friends.

"Hey baby," she said suggestively.

One of the demons standing next to Tarquin eyed her warily. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"

"I'm Aryn, Tarquin's girlfriend, and I came from the living room."

"Aryn has been watching the Halliwells, letting me know their every move," Tarquin added.

"A chameleon demon?" Another asked. Aryn nodded. "Well, Tarquin, you didn't tell us that you liked girls at the bottom of the food chain." The group of demons laughed, and Tarquin joined in.

Aryn silently fumed. Not only had Tarquin not said anything in her defense, he had even laughed with them! "Can I talk to you for a moment? Alone?"

The demons around Tarquin laughed at Aryn's angry tone. "Ooh. Someone's in trouble," one said, starting a fresh round of laughter.

Tarquin looked embarrassed. "I'll be back in a minute," he said to his new friends, pushing Aryn out the door. He led her to one of the sisters' bedrooms and closed the door behind them.

"Thanks for standing up for me back there," Aryn spat. "Who were those guys anyway?"

"They're upper level demons, and they've invited me to go witch-hunting with them," Tarquin answered excitedly.

"You're going after the Halliwells?"

"No, other witches. The Source can take care of the Charmed Ones. We're sick of waiting around here. We're leaving soon."

"But you promised me that we would spend the evening together. Just the two of us."

"I know, but I can't pass up this opportunity. They're upper-level demons, Aryn! I've been waiting for this my whole life. You should be happy for me."

"I should be happy that you're leaving me to hang out with a bunch of upper-level creeps? I don't think so."

"Calm down; you're being unreasonable."

"UNREASONABLE?" Aryn yelled. "How can you treat me this way after everything I've done for you? I've been a piece of furniture for DAYS!"

Without warning one of Tarquin's new friends opened the door. "Tarquin, are you ready to go?"

"I'm ready," he answered boldly. "Look, Aryn, you've been great. I couldn't have done this without you. But I don't need you anymore." He left the room quickly, without even giving her a backward glance.

Aryn felt her entire body fill with rage. He didn't need her anymore?! She had never wanted to go after the Charmed Ones in the first place. She thought it was too dangerous. Yet he had been obsessed with killing them. He had wanted to find out everything he could about them, and because she loved him she had helped him at every step of the way. She had supported him when he lost confidence in himself. She had told him what a wonderful demon he was, better than any other timejumper who ever lived. She had been there for him when no one else gave him a second glance, and now he had pushed her aside as if she was nothing. She would show him and his stupid friends how wrong they were. She would find the Charmed Ones and kill them herself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Does someone try to kill us every day?" Prue wondered aloud as she measured ingredients for the vanquishing potion.

"It seems like it," Piper answered. She stood next to Prue, chopping herbs for the potion. "At least we know that the real Andy and Dan are okay."

"Yeah," Prue agreed. "But poor Andy. He's having a terrible day. Someone stole his cell phone and, when he got back to his apartment, he found that it had been ransacked."

"Oh no," Piper said. "Does he know who did it?"

"Thankfully not," Prue answered. "I wanted to tell him the truth, but I didn't think he would believe the old 'I used your furniture to attack a demon' line." She added her measured ingredients into the pot. "Should we try to call Phoebe again?"

"Why not?" Piper picked up her cell phone and dialed, only to hear the same "Your caller is out of our service area" message that she had heard the last hundred times. "Nothing. Any luck sensing her, Leo?"

Leo was sitting on the fold out couch in their hotel room. His eyes were closed in concentration. "No. Sorry."

"Does that mean she's...dead?" Piper asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer. If someone had attacked Prue and herself, she was sure that someone had attacked Phoebe. And how could Phoebe defend herself?

"It doesn't mean that. It could just be that she's off my radar. Maybe she and Cole are in the Underworld," Leo said, grimacing.

"Why would they be in the Underworld?" Prue asked.

"I don't know. It's only a theory."

"Leo, is there something about Cole that you're not telling us?" Piper asked. "Come on, you can tell your wife, can't you?"

Leo smiled. He was overjoyed that he no longer had to hide his feelings for Piper. "I'm so happy to be your husband," he said, giving her a long kiss.

"You're avoiding the question," she said before they began another long, tender kiss.

"Piper! Leo!" Phoebe exclaimed as she and Cole shimmered into the room. "Way to go! It took you guys long enough."

Piper blushed. "We're glad that you're safe, Phoebs. Did someone try to kill you today?"

"Yeah," Phoebe replied, sounding unconcerned. "Cole took care of it."

"Where have you guys been?" Prue asked. "We've been trying to call you, and Leo couldn't sense you."

"We were just meeting with a friend of Cole's. She has the gift of premonition, too, and she showed me...some interesting things. We need to talk. Cole, Leo, can you guys give us a few minutes?"

"Sure," Leo gave Piper a kiss on the cheek and orbed out.

"Okay," Cole gave Phoebe a kiss and shimmered.

"What is it, Phoebe?" Prue asked.

Phoebe took a deep breath before answering. "We can't restore the timeline."

"What?!" Prue yelled. "Phoebe, we've already talked about this! We don't have a choice!"

"Hold on, Prue," Piper said calmly. "Give her a chance to explain. We're listening, Phoebe. What happened?"

"The woman I met, the one who shares my gift, she showed me a vision of my future. I saw myself marrying Cole and having a daughter. The Seer said that both Cole and my little girl will be lost if we go through with this. It was bad enough when I was losing a sister, but Cole and my daughter, too? No, I can't do it. I won't."

"How do you even know that this 'Seer' is telling the truth? Maybe the vision wasn't real; maybe it was just a trick," Prue theorized.

"No, it can't be," Phoebe declared. "I felt it. It was definitely real."

"And you don't find it convenient that this Seer happens to be a friend of Cole's? What if Cole put her up to it?" Prue charged.

"How many times does he have to prove himself to you? He helped us against the demon army. He got the Book of Shadows back. He saved my life. What does he have to do to earn the 'Prue Seal of Approval'?" Phoebe yelled.

"Both of you, calm down," Piper ordered.

Prue tried to reason with Phoebe. "Let's assume for the moment that the vision was real. That doesn't change the fact that there's an army out there ready to kill us, an army apparently composed of demons and other monsters we vanquished in the original timeline. Who says that we'll live long enough to have kids? Even if we manage to survive, those demons won't stop killing innocents. And what about the innocents who have already been killed? The ones we saved in the original timeline?"

"I know, Prue, and I feel terrible about it, but I saw my little girl grow up. I can't take that life away from her. Cole and I deserve to have her. We deserve to have a life together. So do you and Andy."

"Keep Andy out of this," Prue said angrily. "You think that I want to do this? You think that I want to die? Or that I want Andy to? But I have to do what's right, and so do you."

"You can't force me to--"

"Demon!" Piper shouted. A young, not unattractive woman had suddenly appeared in the room. The sisters ducked as the woman threw a vial at them. The vial hit a bedside table and exploded. Piper threw her hands forward and the woman was incinerated.

"Great job, Piper," Phoebe said admiringly. "Congrats on getting your new power."

Piper frowned. "I meant to freeze her. I was hoping that we could make her tell us the demon army's next move."

"Well, we don't always get what we want," Prue observed.

"Wow. Very subtle, Prue," Phoebe snapped. "As I was saying, you can't force me to do something that will leave you, Andy, Cole, and my daughter dead." Phoebe stormed out of the room.

Prue started to follow her, but Piper held her back. "Let's give her some time to cool down. We were almost done with the potion, right? Let's finish it and then go talk to her."

"Fine," Prue agreed. She and Piper walked back to the table on which they had been preparing the potion. Prue stared in disbelief. Her disbelief quickly turned to anger. The potion, which moments before had been sitting on the table, was gone. "Phoebe, " Prue muttered.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"How horribly disappointing," the Source mused. The demons he had sent to lure and kill each sister individually had promised to report back to him by midnight. The grandfather clock in the Manor had just struck midnight, which meant only one thing. The demons were dead, and the sisters were alive. "I guess that old human expression is right. How does it go?" He thought aloud. "Ah, yes. 'If you want something done right, do it yourself'."

**Thanks for reading. All comments are greatly appreciated and loved.**


	24. Chapter 24

**AN: Thanks again to my wonderfully loyal reviewers piperloveleoalways, Jedi Alanna, -0-charmed-freak-0-, Charmed225 and lizardmomma for their reviews of Ch. 23. **

Chapter Twenty Four

"I can't believe she did that. Of all the selfish, juvenile--"

"Slow down, Prue," Piper interrupted. "You can't believe she did what?" She recognized the look of fury in her sister's eyes and knew that she needed to calm her down fast. _Ah, the __work of the middle child is never done_, she silently lamented.

"Phoebe," Prue said the name as if it were a flesh-eating virus, "took the potion so that we couldn't vanquish Tarquin and restore the timeline. I'll make her give it back," she declared, boldly striding towards the door.

"Hold on," Piper said as she blocked her sister's path. "We don't know that anyone took it. Maybe it just fell off of the table."

"I checked the floor, Piper. Unless it turned invisible, it's gone."

"That still doesn't mean that Phoebe took it."

"Why do you always take her side?"

"I'm not taking anyone's side. I'm just saying that there have been other people in the room. Like Cole, for instance."

"As much as I'd like to blame Cole, I know that it was still on the table when he left."

"Okay, even if Phoebe did take it, she had a good reason. She wants to save this child she saw–and you."

Prue felt her rage lessen. Could she really be mad at her youngest sister for not wanting her dead? "All right. Maybe she had a good reason, but we need to convince her to give it back and to help us do this. Agreed?"

"Agreed." The sisters left their room and headed down the hall to Leo and Cole's room, figuring that Phoebe was likely with Cole. If not, he might know where she was. Prue knocked on the door. "Phoebe?" She called out. "Are you in there?"

Phoebe opened the door and stepped out into the hall. "Hey guys. I'm sorry that I ran out like that. I just needed some time to think."

"It's all right, Phoebs," Piper said, "but Prue and I need to finish the potion. We won't use it until you agree, but we want to have it ready."

"We used up some of the ingredients in making it, and I don't want to go back to the store," Prue added. "Please give it back."

"Give it back?" Phoebe repeated. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"The potion was on the table," Piper explained. "And then it disappeared. So--"

"So you think I stole it?" Phoebe said angrily. " I didn't touch it."

Prue felt her anger return with a bang. "You're going to stand there and lie to us?"

"I'm NOT lying. I didn't take it."

"Just like you didn't kill my fish?" Prue had really liked that fish.

"Mr. Bubbles? Oh my god, Prue, that was twenty years ago! I may have lied then, but I'm not lying now. I didn't take it, I swear."

"Maybe it was your demon boyfriend, then," Prue shot back.

"Former demon," Phoebe corrected. "Will you ever stop accusing him of things? He's not the source of all evil, you know."

"Enough!" Piper shouted. "This isn't getting us anywhere. Phoebe, if you say that you didn't take it, I believe you. Maybe no one took it; maybe it was destroyed when that demon attacked. It doesn't matter. I'll buy the ingredients we need tomorrow and we can make it again. Now shake hands and make up." Her sisters hesitated. "Don't make me blow you up."

Phoebe started to laugh. Prue joined in, then Piper. The earlier tension between the sisters evaporated.

"Piper, you sound so much like a mom," Phoebe observed. Her sisters shared a knowing smile. "Hey, what aren't you telling me?"

Piper smiled. She had told Prue earlier, but she hadn't had a chance to tell Phoebe. "You remember how I was going to meet Dan? Well, it wasn't Dan. It was a demon. After I vanquished him, I called Leo and told him how I felt about him, and he finally admitted to being my husband. I asked if we had any children, and he said yes. We have a son, Wyatt."

"I have a nephew? That's awesome! Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Phoebe gushed.

"Well, we were arguing, and then the demon came, and then you left."

"Oh yeah. Anyway, congratulations again!"

"Thanks."

A brief, awkward silence followed. Phoebe decided to break it. "It's been a long day. Why don't we go to bed and talk about saving the world tomorrow?" She suggested.

"That's a great idea," Piper said.

The sisters walked back to their room, changed into their pajamas, and happily climbed into bed. The room was dark and silent, the bed was comfortable, and Phoebe was exhausted, but she couldn't sleep. Her brain wouldn't let her. If they restored the timeline, she thought, her little girl would be lost. Yet, if they didn't, was there any guarantee that her nephew would be born in this timeline? Could she sacrifice her nephew to save her daughter? How could she do that to Piper? Phoebe miserably shifted her position on the bed. No one should have to make this kind of choice. She was having the worst night of her life, and she desperately prayed for sleep to end it.

XXXXXXXXXX

Tarquin was having the best night of his life. After he had returned from a night of witch-killing with his new friends, the Source himself had summoned him to tell him everything he knew about the Charmed Ones. The actual witch killings had been fun, but even better was his newfound feeling of acceptance. Upper level demons had invited him to join them, and the Source, the ruler of the Underworld, had consulted him! After so many months of planning, Tarquin had finally received his reward. He had finally earned the respect he deserved. He couldn't wait to tell Aryn every detail of his incredible night.

"Aryn!" There was no answer. He hoped that she wasn't too mad at him for his dismissal of her earlier. He would make it up to her later. "Aryn?" He called again. Still no answer.

He was starting to feel concerned. He visited all of their favorite haunts, but he couldn't find her, and no one had seen her. He was surprised at how worried he felt. All this time he thought that he had been using her. Yet now he realized how much he cared for her. No, it was more than that, he admitted to himself. He loved her, and, despite what he had told her earlier, he did need her in his life. He would find her and tell her, no matter how long it took.

XXXXXXXXXX

The Source, with the Seer at his side, thought about the things Tarquin had told him. It was clear to him that going against all three sisters at once was too risky. Hundreds of ordinary demons had made that mistake, and he was no ordinary demon. All he needed to do was kill one of them, he thought, and he would destroy the power of three.

"Which one should I kill first, seer? Phoebe? After all, she has the weakest power."

"But Cole is protecting Phoebe, my lord."

"Prue then? Killing the oldest would demoralize the other two."

"Perhaps, my lord."

"But?" The Source prompted.

"But Prue and Phoebe are fighting. Piper is the one holding them together. Get rid of Piper, and Prue and Phoebe will be at each other's throats."

"Very well, Seer. You've convinced me." Now he knew the who; he just needed to plan the how. He smiled widely. How he loved his job.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Phoebe looked at the hotel clock beside her bed. It read 3:47. She had fallen asleep for a little while, but had had a bad dream, the exact details of which she couldn't remember, and had woken up suddenly. She couldn't go back to sleep, and she didn't want to. She felt that a great evil was plotting against her and her sisters, and so she wanted to stay awake to watch over Prue and Piper. A week ago, she would have thought that she was being paranoid. Now she knew better. A great evil _was_ out there, and she could feel it getting closer.

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated and loved.:)**


	25. Chapter 25

**AN: Many thanks to -0-charmed-freak-0-, WelshCanuck, Charmed225, lizardmomma, piperloveleoalways and minorshan for your reviews of Ch. 24; reviews are like chocolate for the soul. :)**

Chapter Twenty Five

"Piper, you can't go to work!" Phoebe exclaimed the next morning. "Something is out there, plotting against us. I can feel it. We need to stay together."

"I don't want to go, Phoebs," Piper explained. "But my boss made me feel so guilty about calling in sick again. The restaurant still hasn't hired a new co-manager, and they really need me."

"We need you here," Phoebe pleaded. "Please don't go."

"I'm sorry, but I already told him that I would come in today. I'll try to leave as early as I can to help you guys with the potion." Piper hoped that this would satisfy Phoebe, but she knew her sister never gave up easily.

"Help me out here, Prue. Tell her that she shouldn't go," Phoebe begged, praying that her oldest sister would support her.

Piper jumped in before Prue could answer. "It's the safest place I could be. No demon's likely to attack me in a crowded restaurant, but if any try I can blow them up now. Plus, if you need me while I'm gone, you can send Leo to orb me back. "

"All right," Prue said. She had to admit that Piper's argument was reasonable. "Go ahead. Phoebe and I can buy the potion ingredients ourselves."

"Thanks Prue," Piper said as she walked out of the door.

"You shouldn't have let her go. What if it's another trap?" Phoebe wasn't convinced that the restaurant was as safe as Piper claimed.

"What did you want me to do? Use my power to move a couch in front of the door so that she couldn't leave? You know how seriously Piper takes her work." Prue was just as concerned as Phoebe, but she knew that Piper would go to work no matter what she or Phoebe said.

"I know. I just wish that you would believe me when I say that I have a bad feeling about something. Or when I say that I didn't steal a certain potion." Phoebe was still angry at Prue for accusing her of something so devious, but, if she was honest with herself, she was really more hurt than angry.

"Let's just forget about it," Prue said, in no mood to rehash last night's argument. "Do you want to come with me to the store?"

"Fine," Phoebe muttered. As she followed Prue out of the door, she couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen--and she didn't know how to stop it.

XXXXXXXXXXXx

"I'm glad to see that you're feeling better, Piper," Tracy said as she picked up her order in Windbury's kitchen.

"Thanks." Piper looked up from the food she was preparing to give the waitress a smile.

Tracy smiled back as she left the kitchen with her order. When Tracy came back into the kitchen several minutes later, however, her smile was gone. "What's wrong?" Piper asked when she noticed the change in her demeanor.

"This guy at table nineteen is being a real jerk. He's demanding to speak to the manager." Piper sighed. Dealing with irate customers was hardly her favorite part of the job, and, in her experience, these customers rarely had a good reason for behaving so rudely. _But what if this __guy isn't your average angry customer?_ She thought suddenly. _What if he's a demon_?

Piper felt her heartbeat accelerating. She poked her head out of the kitchen and saw that the lunch rush had filled every table. Confident that no demon would attack in front of so many people, she swallowed her fears and headed for table nineteen. She found a middle aged man and woman there. The woman wore an elegant dress and pearls. The man, short, fat, and bald, wore a designer suit. "Can I help you with something?" She asked in what she hoped sounded like a friendly tone.

"You the manager?" the man barked.

"Yes," Piper answered, though at times like these she wished that she weren't.

"But you're a woman," the man replied.

"Thank you for noticing. Is there a problem with your order, sir?" Piper struggled to keep her tone polite.

"Well, for starters, it took you guys fifteen minutes to bring out my soup," the man began.

"And my salad," the woman added.

"My apologies, but this is our busiest time of day." _If you think that you can do better, __you're welcome to try_, she silently challenged the couple.

"And another thing. My wife asked for dressing on the side, and the waitress put it on the salad itself. I don't know what kind of restaurant you're running, lady, but when I pay good money I expect a certain level of service, and--"

Piper tuned out the man's grumbling. She briefly considered freezing him and walking away. She had blown up the demon in the hotel the last time she tried to freeze someone, however, and as much as this guy was annoying her, she wouldn't take the risk. Then she saw something that drove all thoughts of the angry customer out of her mind.

Two tables behind the angry customer and his wife, a man sitting alone was choking. He had his arms crossed against his chest and his mouth was gaping open, struggling for air. Piper raced to his table, ignoring the angry customer's shout of "Hey, Lady, I wasn't finished yet!" Frantically Piper called to mind the steps needed to perform the Heimlich maneuver. Step One: Wrap your arms around the victim's waist. Step Two: Make a fist. Place the thumb side of your fist below the victim's ribcage. Step Three: Grab your fist with your other hand and thrust upward. Repeat as needed. Piper performed each step faithfully until the piece of food he was choking on was thrown free. She breathed a long sigh of relief. She was immensely grateful now that she had taken a first aid class a few years ago. She watched while color slowly returned to the man's face and he started taking slow, deep breaths.

"Thank you," the man said in raspy voice. His eyes and smile radiated gratitude.

"You're welcome," she said, smiling back at him. She hoped that she hadn't broken any ribs. Looking around the restaurant, she asked, "Can someone call 911?" At least ten people took out their cell phones. Piper walked back to her office and sank into the chair behind her desk, trying to process what had just happened. She, Piper Halliwell, had just saved a life. She felt a rush of adrenaline throughout her body; it was the most amazing feeling she had ever experienced. _This is it_, she thought. _This is how it feels to __save a life_. _This is my destiny_. She needed to go back to the hotel and help her sisters. She would return to the kitchen, say goodbye to the staff, and leave.

Shouts of "Way to go, Piper" and "Great job, Piper" erupted as soon as she entered the kitchen. She felt someone pat her on the shoulder. "Congratulations, Piper." She turned around to see Jared, her boss. " It's a good thing you were here," he beamed.

"It's a good thing you convinced me to come to work this morning." _If I had listened to __Phoebe and stayed home, that man might be dead now_.

Jared looked confused. "This morning?"

Piper repressed a wave of panic. "You didn't talk to me this morning? Guilt me into coming to work?"

The confusion on Jared's face deepened. "This morning? No. Are you sure you're feeling better?"

_Then someone else wanted me to come to work this morning_, _someone who impersonated __my boss's voice. Now I really need to get out of here. It'll be okay; I just saved someone's life, __and now my boss thinks I'm disoriented.; he'll have to let me leave early_. "Jared? I have to--"

Jared's cell phone rang. "Hold on, Piper. I need to answer this." He picked up his phone and walked away. A few seconds later a young man entered the kitchen. Piper recognized him as Duane, the unreliable waiter who had given her so many headaches.

"Hey Duane," Michael, one of the cooks, said.

"Hey Mike."

"Dude, didn't you get fired?" Another of the cooks asked.

"Yeah," Duane answered, barely containing his anger. " I just came to pick up my last paycheck. Piper, can you get it for me, please?"

Something about Duane made Piper uneasy. _Stop being paranoid_. _If he were a demonic __impostor, how would he know Mike's name? Just get his paycheck and he'll leave_. "Sure." Piper turned her back on Duane and walked toward her office to get his check. _Calm down_, she told herself. _Get his check, tell Jared you're going, and leave_. That was her last thought before she felt a hot, sharp pain on the back of her head and collapsed to the floor.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Duane ran out of the restaurant, still holding the gun in his hand. He was confused and terrified. Why had he done that? He had been mad about losing his job, but not that mad. He had never done anything like this before. It was as if someone else had been in his head, controlling his actions. Suddenly he felt as if something, or someone, was leaving his body. "Thanks for your help, kid," he heard a voice say. Duane wondered if he had really heard the voice, or if he had just imagined the whole thing. He couldn't have known that the voice was real, or that it belonged to the Source of all Evil.

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated and loved. :)**


	26. Chapter 26

**AN: Thanks to piperloveleoalways, Jedi Alanna, Charmed225, WelshCanuck, and rikkukirst for your reviews of Chapter 25. You make me happy when skies are gray... :)**

Chapter Twenty Six

"Phoebe, relax. I'm sure that Piper's fine." Prue wasn't sure at all, but she felt that she needed to remain calm for Phoebe's sake. Now that they had bought the necessary ingredients and made the potion again, there was nothing to distract Phoebe from her worrying.

"Then why won't she answer her phone?" With every passing second Phoebe became more convinced that something had happened to Piper. She wondered how Prue could be so calm at a time like this.

"Maybe she's just busy," Prue suggested, but she knew that was unlikely. Piper had known how worried Phoebe had been that morning and, no matter how busy she was, she would have taken the time to let her younger sister know that she was okay.

"Or maybe she's hurt. Or dead." Phoebe felt sick at the thought. It was as if someone had just kicked her in the stomach.

"We don't know that," Prue said softly. "Let's not jump to any–" She stopped herself mid-sentence when she heard a knock on the door. "Maybe that's Piper now."

"I'll get it," Phoebe volunteered, sprinting to the door. She opened it to find a familiar face staring back at her. "Cole! How are you? I haven't seen you all day!" She gave her boyfriend a big hug.

"I know. I've been in the Underworld, investigating some rumors."

"Rumors?" Prue repeated as she moved towards the door. "About what?"

Phoebe felt a wave of panic rising in her chest. "Is it about Piper? Is she hurt?" She noticed that Cole wouldn't meet her gaze.

"I don't have time to explain here." Cole wrapped his arms around Phoebe and started to shimmer.

Phoebe thought that she heard Prue calling after her, but it was too late. She and Cole materialized in what appeared to be a large underground chamber. It was dark, cold, and uninviting. Wherever they were, Phoebe didn't want to stay a second longer than she had to. "Where are we?" She asked as she looked around at their dismal surroundings.

"The Underworld," Cole answered calmly, as if it were a perfectly normal place to be.

"Why?" _Whatever the reason is_, she thought, _it can't be good_.

"Because he won't think to look here," Cole responded cryptically.

Now Phoebe was really starting to panic. "Who's 'he'?"

"The Source of all Evil. If the rumors are true, and I don't have any reason to believe they're not, he went after Piper to destroy the power of three."

"Oh my god." Phoebe felt herself falling to the ground, but Cole caught her. All this time she had been wondering how she could deal with losing Prue if they restored the timeline; she had never thought she would lose Piper! "Piper's dead?"

"Most likely. They say he shot her in the head."

Phoebe began sobbing uncontrollably. "It's my fault!" She screamed between sobs. "I knew something was going to happen; I could have tried harder to stop her! Or, if I had helped my sisters instead of fighting them, maybe we would have restored the timeline already and this wouldn't have happened!"

Cole put his hands on Phoebe's shoulders. "Phoebe, I'm sorry about your sister, but you need to put aside your grief for a while. You're in danger. Now that the power of three is broken, you're vulnerable."

Phoebe was only half-listening. "Why Piper, Cole? Why her? He should have gone after me. I have the weakest power." Cole put his arms around her to comfort her. "What use is this stupid power of prem–." Phoebe broke off mid-word; she was having a vision.

She saw herself and her sisters in the hotel room. Piper was saying goodbye to Leo and she was saying goodbye to Cole. _This was yesterday_, she realized, _when I asked Leo and Cole to __leave so I could talk to Prue and Piper about the Seer's vision_. She saw Cole shimmering away– but he hadn't really left! The vision showed that Cole had remained in the room, hidden from view. He had listened to the sisters' conversation and smiled as Phoebe declared her refusal to restore the timeline. Then, when the sisters had been distracted by the demon, he had snatched the potion off of the table and left. The vision ended, abruptly forcing Phoebe back into reality.

"What happened?" Cole looked at Phoebe anxiously.

"Nothing." Phoebe involuntarily backed away from Cole. _You're not the man I thought you __were_, she thought miserably. _Of course he's not_! Her mind rebuked her. _He's a demon! And __you let yourself fall in love with him. You listened to your heart instead of your brain, and __look where it's gotten you._

Cole could see instantly that she was lying. He knew her too well to believe otherwise. "You had a premonition, didn't you? What did you see?" He moved towards her as he spoke.

"Nothing important," Phoebe lied, again backing away from him as he stepped closer. _Except that you've been working against me and my sisters_, she added mentally. _This __premonition would have been really helpful earlier! _Her mind shouted, silently cursing the powers above.

Cole knew there could be only one reason why Phoebe kept distancing herself from him. "You saw me, didn't you?" From the look on her face, whatever she had seen had turned her against him.

Phoebe felt her previous melancholy over Cole's true nature give way to anger. She had believed in him. She had refused to listen to any of Prue's accusations, accusations which, she realized now, were likely all true. "YOU took the potion! And I defended you to my sisters!"

Cole didn't deny it. "I knew that it would delay your sisters in case they went ahead without your support."

"And the vision? It wasn't real, was it? It was a trick to stop me from changing the timeline- just so you could save your life." Phoebe couldn't believe how easily she had let herself be deceived. How could she have been so stupid?

"Not just my life; I did it to save us. I love you, Phoebe. That's why I brought you down here, so I can protect you. We can have the future you saw. We can be happy together." Cole meant every word. He had betrayed the entire Underworld for her; she was the only one that mattered to him.

Phoebe had always thought that "heartbreak" was only an expression. Yet now she was experiencing it herself. It was truly a painful feeling, worse than any physical injuries she had ever suffered. Only yesterday she had argued with Prue that she and Cole deserved a life together. She had wanted that life desperately, but today she knew that it wasn't meant to be. Prue was right; they had to restore the timeline. It was the only way to save all the innocents they were destined to save–and Piper.

"I'm sorry, Cole," she could feel fresh tears watering her cheeks as she spoke, "but I can't stay with you. Please, please take me back to the hotel."

"Phoebe, don't you understand? With the power of three gone, the Source will go after you and Prue. Prue's probably dead already, and you don't stand a chance on your own. I'm sorry, Phoebe, but I can't let you leave." Whether willingly or as a prisoner, Phoebe would be his forever.

**Thanks for reading! All comments are treasured. :)**


	27. Chapter 27

**AN: Thanks so much to piperloveleoalways, WelshCanuck, Jedi Alanna, rikkukirst, and lizardmomma for your reviews of Chapter 26; I love getting e-mails saying I have reviews:)**

Chapter Twenty Seven

Andy Trudeau appeared to be analyzing a stack of case files. His partner, Darryl Morris, and the other cops in the station believed that Andy was hard at work. They knew how committed he was to the job and admired his integrity. At the moment, however, while his eyes looked at every word of every file, his brain couldn't absorb a single sentence. He was preoccupied with thoughts of Prue. He had known her since they were kids– long enough to know that something was bothering her, something that she wouldn't tell him.

He thought about their dinner at Antonio's. Prue had been disturbed about something, and she kept talking about death. Since then she had avoided him. She had called him at the station on the day his apartment was ransacked, asking if he was okay, but hadn't returned any of his calls. He had been to the Manor a few times, but each time Prue and her sisters were gone.

_What if Prue really is dying_, his detective brain theorized, _and so she's trying to keep her __distance, thinking that she's sparing me the pain_? If so, it wasn't working. Not knowing where she was or what was going on was tormenting him. He couldn't sleep at night. He was barely eating. He was distracted at work. With a wistful smile, he remembered the last time he had seen her. She was leaving his apartment in the middle of the night after Piper had called saying that there was some sort of family emergency. Before she left, he had asked her about a word he heard her use on the phone. What was it? White something? A yellow highlighter on his desk jumpstarted his memory. Whitelighter! She had resisted, and he had threatened to arrest her for refusing to cooperate with an officer of the law. It was a joke, of course, a cheap ploy to stall her for a few precious moments. He remembered the words they had spoken to each other; they seemed eerily significant now:

"_I'd run away before you could_," she had said.

"_Then I would look for you, and I wouldn't stop until I found you," _he had answered.

The memory gave him strength. He was determined now to treat Prue's disappearance as a missing persons case. He would check her credit card statement for recent activity. Interview everyone she knew. Go door to door if he had to. He would–

"Trudeau!" His partner's voice abruptly ended his reverie. "We're getting reports of a shooting at Windbury's. Let's go." Windbury's? Wasn't that Piper's restaurant? _This is __convenient_, Andy thought. _If Piper's there, I can ask her about Prue_.

When Andy and Darryl arrived at Windbury's, Andy discovered that Piper was in no position to talk. They watched as she was placed in an ambulance and rushed to a hospital. _Oh __my god_, he thought. _I have to call Prue. Please, Prue, answer your phone this time_. "Morris, can I borrow your phone?" He hadn't had time to replace his stolen one. Darryl threw him the phone. While Darryl began interviewing Windbury's employees, Andy dialed the number and prayed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Prue had never felt so alone. Piper was missing, and now Cole had just spirited Phoebe off somewhere. What was she supposed to do now? She felt herself starting to panic, but she refused to give in to her emotions. _I need to stay calm_, she told herself, willing her rapid heartbeat to resume its normal rhythm. _I need to focus. I need to_–

Prue jumped at the sound of her phone. Her caller ID told her that it was Darryl Morris, Andy's partner. Darryl had never called her before; was he calling to say that something had happened to Andy? She couldn't hold back her panic any longer. It worked itself through her bloodstream, attacking every cell, every organ, until finally it seized control of her brain.

"Is Andy hurt?" Prue practically screamed into the phone.

"What? No, no, Prue, it's me. I'm fine."

Prue had never been so happy to hear Andy's voice. "Thank God. My caller ID said it was Darryl, and I thought..." She trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. She remembered then that Andy's phone had been stolen. The demon who had pretended to be Andy must have taken it so that "Andy" would show up on her caller ID.

"I borrowed his phone," Andy explained. "Look, Prue, there's something I need to tell you." He paused, trying to think of how to tell her. " It's about Piper."

Prue knew that Andy wasn't going to be the bearer of good news. She suddenly had trouble breathing. She felt as if she were having an asthma attack, although she didn't have asthma. "What happened?" she managed to squeak out. _Please don't say she's dead. Please, Please_.

Andy decided the direct method was best. "She's been shot. They took her to San Francisco Memorial. Can I give you a ride?" He offered not only because he wanted to see her, but because he felt that Prue would be too emotionally distraught to drive herself.

Prue struggled to regulate her breathing. She finally calmed herself down enough so that she could talk. "No thanks." She knew a faster way. "Thank you for telling me, Andy. Bye." As soon as she hung up she allowed her barely repressed tears to escape. She was angry at whatever evil being had attacked her sister. She was angry at herself for not taking Phoebe's warning seriously. No, she was angry at the whole universe for allowing her sister, the sweetest, kindest person in the world, to be hurt. She embraced the anger; it was preferable by far to sorrow.

"LEO!" She yelled.

Instantly he materialized in front of her. Prue could see that he too was crying. "It's about Piper, isn't it? I sensed that something horrible happened."

Prue looked at him sympathetically. She knew that he loved her sister just as much as she did. She nodded and explained what had happened. "Can you orb us to San Francisco Memorial?" Leo took Prue's hand and orbed them behind some tall bushes near the hospital's entrance. They emerged from the bushes and sprinted into the hospital.

A nurse at the reception desk directed Prue and Leo to room 309. They entered the room to find Piper unconscious and hooked up to a wide array of machines. If it weren't for those machines, Prue could pretend that her sister was just sleeping. She walked to Piper's side and held her hand. Leo, on the other side of the bed, held Piper's other hand. Both of them looked at her with tears in their eyes. "Can you heal her?" Prue asked.

"I'm going to try." Leo gently let go of Piper's hand and placed both of his hands above her body, waiting for the familiar healing glow. It wouldn't come.

"Why isn't it working?" Prue asked.

Leo was clearly dejected. "I can only heal when I'm allowed to," he answered.

"And why aren't you allowed to heal Piper?" she asked angrily.

"I'm guessing it's because the Elders hope that Piper's condition will compel you to restore the timeline." He tried to keep the pain out of his voice, but failed miserably.

"And they want me to restore the timeline without Piper's help?" Prue felt her anger growing to dangerous levels.

"You still have Phoebe," Leo said, trying to sound upbeat. "Where is Phoebe, anyway?"

"Off with Cole somewhere. Can you sense her?"

Leo closed his eyes for a minute in concentration. "No. They might be in the Underworld again."

Prue knew that something wasn't right. "If Phoebe knew that Piper was in the hospital, she'd be here, and Cole seemed to know that something had happened."

"Maybe Cole didn't tell her," Leo suggested. "Maybe she doesn't know."

Prue couldn't imagine that Phoebe, who had been so worried about Piper, would willingly stay in the Underworld without checking with her or Leo to see if there was any news. Maybe Cole wouldn't let her come back. The story of Persephone, a young girl kidnaped by Hades, the Lord of the Underworld in Greek Mythology, suddenly popped into Prue's mind. Prue was sure that Phoebe was a prisoner, just like Persephone. The thought of her youngest sister trapped in the Underworld with Cole made her nauseous.

The door to room 309 opened and a young, good looking man entered. "Hi, I'm Dr. Joseph Brigham," he said.

"Prue Halliwell," Prue said, shaking his offered hand. "I'm Piper's sister."

"Leo Wyatt," Leo also shook his hand. "I'm Piper's--" He stopped himself; he wasn't Piper's husband in this timeline. "I'm a friend of the family."

"Well, Prue, Leo," Dr. Brigham began, unable to conceal the sadness in his voice, "I wish that I could give you better news. It's a miracle that Piper wasn't killed instantly; a few centimeters in any direction and she would have been. Yet her brain damage is significant. I honestly can't foresee her ever coming out of the coma. She'll likely be in a vegetative state for the rest of her life. I'd encourage you to consider donating her organs."

Prue felt as if she had been punched in the stomach. She herself had "organ donor" on her license. She thought that organ donation was a wonderful thing. Yet the thought of this man - whom she had just met- carving up her sister and giving away her insides like free Christmas presents was just too much to deal with right now.

Dr. Brigham could see her distress. "I know it's a lot to think about. Take your time; I'll be back later." He turned to leave but then stopped and turned around. "Just out of curiosity, are you related to a Phoebe Halliwell?"

For a brief second Prue allowed herself to hope. "Yes, she's my sister. Was she here earlier?"

"I'm sorry; I haven't seen her today. I met her not too long ago at Hot Spot. Small world, isn't it? I'll send her this way if I see her. Just let me know if I can do anything else for you, Ms. Halliwell. I'm truly sorry about your sister." He turned and walked out of the room.

Soon afterwards the door opened again and another man entered. Prue ran to embrace him when she saw who it was. "Andy!" She threw her arms around him and pressed her face against his chest. "It's so good to see you."

Andy inwardly rejoiced at having Prue back in his arms. "Good to see you, too." He withdrew from their embrace so he could look into her eyes. "I'm sorry about Piper, Prue. You know that I love her like my own sister. I wanted you to know that we caught the guy. His name is Duane Lee Boggs. He's a former employee at Windbury's. He might be mentally unstable. He keeps saying that he was 'possessed' at the time of the shooting, but he may just be trying to set up an insanity plea. I promise you, Prue, whether it's in a jail or a mental hospital, I'll keep this guy locked up for life."

"Thank you, Andy."

Andy's beeper went off. He regarded it with a look of disgust. "I'm sorry, Prue. I have to go. Can I see you at the end of my shift?" He asked hopefully.

Prue nodded. "I love you." She knew that this was a longer goodbye than Andy realized.

Andy smiled back at her. "I love you too." He kissed her and left.

Prue watched him go with the distinct feeling that she would never see him again–not in this world anyway. But she couldn't think about that now. "Could a demon have possessed Duane, Leo?" she asked.

"It's possible." He was reminded of how the Source had once taken over the body of Paige's boyfriend, Shane. The Source could have easily lured Piper to Windbury's and taken over Duane's body. "It's very possible."

"Then we have to assume that the same demon will come after me and Phoebe. I have to restore the timeline now." Prue didn't want to do this alone, but with one sister in a coma and another possibly trapped in the Underworld she didn't see that she had much of a choice. In this timeline, she alone couldn't save Piper or brave the entire Underworld to rescue Phoebe. If she was successful, however, this timeline would never exist.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Tarquin had been searching for Aryn all day. He was hungry and tired, but he wouldn't stop. Someone, somewhere had to know something, but every answer so far was the same. No, they hadn't seen her recently. No, they didn't know where she was. He was going crazy. Then, in the midst of his despair, inspiration struck. He could ask the Seer! It was said that she could see many things. Perhaps she could see where Aryn was. Eagerly he went to the Seer's chambers.

"Great Seer, can you tell me where my girlfriend is?" He asked.

The Seer's face was expressionless. "Are you sure that you want to know?"

Tarquin hadn't expected that response. "Of course I want to know."

"Very well. Give me your hands," she ordered.

Tarquin did as he was told. Suddenly he was seeing things not through his own eyes, but the Seer's. He saw the Charmed Ones arguing about restoring the timeline. Then Aryn appeared and threw a potion at them. The sisters ducked for cover and the vial exploded harmlessly behind them. Piper threw out her hands and then–

"NOOOO!" he screamed. His beloved was dead–murdered by the Charmed Ones. Aryn was the only woman he had ever loved, and now she was gone forever. The Charmed Ones had stolen her from him. There were so many things left unsaid, but it was too late now. A powerful rage consumed him. A single thought dominated his mind: he would avenge his love. Forget the Source. He would kill the Charmed Ones himself.

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated. :)**


	28. Chapter 28

**AN: Thanks to piperloveleoalways, WelshCanuck, Jedi Alanna, rikkukirst and lizardmomma for your reviews of Chapter 27; I truly appreciate all of your kind words. :)**

Chapter Twenty Eight

Prue couldn't afford to waste any time. As soon as Leo orbed her back to the hotel, she grabbed the Book of Shadows from its hiding place under her bed. The vanquishing potion for Tarquin was safely in her purse; now she needed a spell to send her back in time. She scanned each page eagerly for any mention of time travel. As page after page provided no help, however, she began to feel uneasy. She believed this feeling was called "butterflies in your stomach", but the phrase seemed ill-fitting. Butterflies were small and cute. She liked butterflies. No, there weren't butterflies in her stomach; there were snakes, coiling and uncoiling their long, scaly bodies, gliding through her intestines. But why?

She blamed the Book. The pictures of demons and warlocks and other things that went bump in the night were vivid enough to provide years of nightmares, and the descriptions of their dastardly deeds would make anyone feel ill. Yet she sensed that it was more than that. She was afraid. Not of the demons, but of something much worse, something she couldn't articulate. _But there's no time __to be afraid_, she rebuked herself.

She continued flipping through the Book, each time fervently hoping the next page would be the right one. Finally she found a spell that mentioned turning back time. Her joy quickly vanished when she saw it was a spell to un-do a bond. That wouldn't work. She brushed aside her disappointment and growing fear, pretending that they didn't exist. Soon after she found a spell that talked about removing the chains of time and space. She frowned as she realized that it would return her to a past life. Wasn't there anything in this enormous book that could help her? What if she was attacked before she could find something? Swallowing her frustration, she flipped to the next page and saw a spell written in her grandmother's handwriting. The handwriting gave her an idea.

_Mom, Grams_, she silently prayed._ I need your help. I __don't know how much time I have before some demon finds me. I need to find a spell to restore __the timeline. Please help me. _As if in response, the Book's pages started flipping on their own.

When they stopped a few seconds later, the Book revealed a page titled "How to Restore the Timeline". There was a spell in her grandmother's writing, and, at the bottom of the page, a note of encouragement in her mother's writing: "We're so proud of you, my darling." _Thank __you_, Prue said mentally, forcibly holding back tears. She read the spell to herself. _This is it, _she thought_. I say this spell, vanquish Tarquin, and the world is as it should be. _Her scarcely repressed fear escaped to the surface. _But what if something goes wrong? What if–?_

Prue screamed. A man had suddenly appeared in the room. His hair was silver, and his eyes were dark and cold, devoid of all emotion. His smile reminded Prue of a hungry crocodile she had seen on a nature show. He was dressed all in black. "Your fear," the man sniffed in the air as if he were standing in a garden, admiring a rose, "called out to me." He waved his hand in front of her face to learn her innermost thoughts. "Your greatest fear is that you'll fail. That you won't be able to restore the timeline, and your sisters and your precious innocents will be dead. Your ancestors have been witches for centuries, but it will all end with you. You'll disappoint them all."

In her mind's eye Prue saw herself standing alone in a vast cemetery. Hundreds of gray granite tombstones dotted the lush green landscape. Each grave held the bones of one of her ancestors; the history of her family was buried under her feet. She stood before two fresh graves–the graves of her sisters. Their spirits suddenly appeared before her. They looked like Piper and Phoebe, but the kindness and goodness they possessed in life was gone. Only anger remained. "We'll never forgive you," they said in unison. "You let us die. You killed us."

"Nooooo!" Prue's mind screamed.

Barbas, the demon of fear, only laughed. "That's right. Feed me your fear."

In Prue's mind the spirits of her sisters tormented her. "You're our older sister," Piper's spirit said. "You were supposed to protect us."

"But you didn't," Phoebe's spirit added. "You failed us. And them." She waved her hand to motion to the graves surrounding them. The spirits of their ancestors began rising up from the earth.

"You let my little girls down!" their mother yelled.

Their grandmother appeared alongside their mother. "You've destroyed the Halliwell line!" she raged.

With each passing second more and more spirits started screaming insults at Prue, condemning her as a failure. Prue clapped her hands over her ears to block out the noise, but the voices would not be denied. Their shouts penetrated her entire body, tearing apart cells, tissues, and organs from the inside. She fell to the ground in agony. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't do anything. She had tried to help her sisters and the world but all was lost. There was nothing to do now but die. She was starting to accept the inevitability of her death when Piper's spirit materialized before her. This Piper wasn't angry or spiteful. Prue knew intuitively that this was the spirit of the comatose Piper, the real Piper.

"Don't give up!" her sister pleaded. "This isn't real. You can still save us. Please, Prue, don't give up! Let go of your fear!" Piper's spirit showed Prue long distant memories. She saw herself holding baby Piper for the first time, being careful not to drop her, catching toddler Piper before she fell down the stairs, warning young Piper not to touch the stove, and advising teenage Piper not to date an older guy. The memories reminded her that she had always known how to protect her sisters. She was good at it. She could do it then and she could do it now. They had come too far for her to let fear get in the way. She forced herself to stand up. Boldly she faced the images of her ancestors. "I'm not afraid anymore!" she yelled. "I won't fail you!" The images disappeared, and Prue found herself back in the hotel room. Barbas had failed, not her. He screamed in anger and vanished.

Prue took several deep breaths to calm herself. _Okay_, she thought. _No more worries, no __more doubts. I can do this_. Without further hesitation she read the spell from the Book.

_I call upon the ancient powers_

_To bless me with their might._

_Send me back through time and space_

_So I can set things right._

When she finished reading the spell, she was transported to the attic of the Manor. She saw a familiar face standing at the podium, saying a spell to hide the Book.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Cole, please let me go." Phoebe was worried for herself- she had never been trapped in the underworld like a fairy tale damsel in distress before- but she was even more worried about Prue. If Cole was right, Prue was in danger. She had already lost one sister; she couldn't imagine losing both.

"I told you that the Source is after you. I have to protect you. I won't let him hurt you, Phoebe. I love you."

"And I love my sisters! I can't sit here and let Prue fight him alone. Please, Cole, if you really love me, take me to Prue."

"'If' I really love you?!" Cole yelled. "I've turned my back on every demon I've ever met!I've made myself an enemy of the Source, the most powerful demon in the underworld, for YOU! You're all I have left...and when the Source kills Prue, I'll be all you have left." He tried to embrace her, but she backed away.

She was angry at Cole, but even angrier at herself. Cole had betrayed his friends, but she had betrayed her sisters. She had refused to help them, not wanting to lose Prue, Cole, and her daughter. Now she knew that Cole was evil and their daughter was fictional. Now she was going to lose Prue anyway–and she had already lost Piper. And what about all the innocents they were destined to save?

Phoebe had considered herself an expert in the art of screwing up before, but getting caught sneaking out of the house, dating a boy on the wrong side of the law, or crashing a car into a tree were nothing compared to this. She had been the one who had accepted their powers and destiny most readily. She had loved the idea of protecting the innocent and destroying evil: Super Phoebe to the rescue. Yet she had been the one to ruin everything. How could she ever forgive herself? How could she live knowing that she was responsible for so many deaths? She was the most worthless–

_Stop it_, her inner psychologist warned. _All this self pity will get you nowhere. You can still save Piper __and the innocents. You can find a way out of here and restore the timeline yourself. You can fix __your mistake. _

_Yes, I can fix my mistake_, Phoebe decided. _And I will. It's not too late to save the day. I can __still make my sisters and our witch ancestors proud_.

While Phoebe had been thinking about what a miserable person she was, Cole had been watching her, silently studying her facial expressions and wondering what thoughts had caused them. "You hate me, don't you?" He waited for an answer, but Phoebe wouldn't give him one. She didn't want to waste time talking. She needed every available brain cell to plan her escape.

Realizing that he wasn't getting a response, Cole continued. "I'm sorry about your sisters. I know how important they were to you, but it's better this way, you'll see. They always disapproved of us. They wanted you to sacrifice your happiness for them. Now that they're gone, no one will stop us from being together."

Before Phoebe could fully register the horror of what he had said, a sinister laugh reverberated around them. "What was that?" she asked.

Before Cole could answer, a robed figure materialized in front of them. "I never knew that you were such a romantic, Belthazor."

The Source smiled menacingly at Cole and Phoebe.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Leo sat by Piper's hospital bed, holding one of her hands in his, using his other hand to stroke her long, beautiful hair. As he watched the woman he loved slowly dying, he felt as if he were dying with her. "Everything will be okay," he told her, ignoring the tears which raced each other down his cheeks. "Prue will restore the timeline, and everything will be as it was." It had to be. Leo couldn't accept the possibility that Prue would fail. That he would lose Piper forever. That their son Wyatt would never exist. That he had really lost everything that ever mattered to him. No, he wouldn't accept that. Prue would restore the timeline, and everything would be fine.

Still, the sight of Piper in this hospital, motionless, wires sticking out of her arms, was unbearable. He tried to heal her again. It didn't work, just as it hadn't the last ten times. He knew it wouldn't, but he had to do something. He felt useless. What good were his powers if they couldn't help the people he loved?

He wondered if there was anything he could have done to prevent it. Maybe he could have gone with her to Windbury's. He imagined Duane pulling out a gun and aiming it at Piper. He imagined himself tackling him to the ground. He wasn't an aggressive or violent person, but when his family was threatened he would do anything to protect them. But he hadn't protected Piper. She was in a coma instead of in his arms. How could this have happened? _But it will be __okay_, he kept telling himself. _Prue will restore the timeline and_–

He suddenly felt guilty. He wanted Prue to succeed so that he would have his family back. Yet restoring the timeline meant returning to a world where Prue was dead. He had let Prue sacrifice herself to save Piper. He recalled how angry Piper had been in the original timeline when he had saved her instead of Prue. There were days when he thought that she would never forgive him. Would she be angry if she knew that he had sent her sister to restore the timeline alone? Of course she would. She would be furious and heartbroken, and he would hold her and comfort her and love her and wish that he could heal emotional pain as easily as he could physical pain. She would be angry, but she would be alive. _I love you so much, Piper Halliwell_, he thought. _Please forgive me._

XXXXXXXXXXX

Tarquin smiled as he walked through the lobby of San Francisco Memorial. When he had heard about Piper's shooting, it hadn't taken him long to learn which hospital she had been taken to. Surely her sisters would be there with her, and he could kill all three of them at once.

When he came to the door of Piper's room, he stood outside and listened. He heard Leo's voice telling Piper that everything would be okay. _You don't know how wrong you are, whitelighter_, he thought.

He listened for several minutes longer but didn't hear any other voices. He dared to look through the small window in the door. He saw Leo stroking Piper's hair, and the sight filled him with rage. Why should Leo get to be with his love, when Tarquin's had been taken from him? Suddenly he didn't care that Prue and Phoebe weren't there. Piper was, and Piper was the one who had blown up his love, his precious Aryn. Now she would be the one to die. And as for Leo...

He threw open the door and hurled a potion at Leo. The whitelighter seemed unconcerned for his own safety. He tried to shield Piper's body with his own, but once the potion hit him he couldn't move a muscle. The paralysis potion had worked beautifully.

"Hello, Leo." Tarquin watched with pleasure as Leo struggled unsuccessfully against the potion's effects. "I must admit that I was a little disappointed at first to find only the two of you here, but I realize now how much fun this will be. I saw my love being murdered, Leo. Now you will, too."

**Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, please let me know. :)**


	29. Chapter 29

**AN: Thanks to piperloveleoalways, WelshCanuck, Jedi Alanna, -0-charmed-freak-0-, rikkukirst and lizardmomma for your reviews of Ch. 28; you're the best!**

**There will be one more chapter after this one. Hope you enjoy!**

Chapter Twenty Nine

The look on Leo's face was priceless. Tarquin knew that any whitelighter loathed losing a charge, and Leo was about to lose a charge _and_ a wife. How wonderful. He would kill Piper to avenge Aryn, then leave Leo alive in agony. He would make Leo suffer the unforgiving pain of losing his love– the pain he himself felt and would always feel for Aryn. Tarquin planned to enjoy this moment. He would toy with the whitelighter before he broke his heart.

"I'll tell you what, Leo. I'll let you choose the method of execution. Might I suggest fire? They used to burn witches at the stake, didn't they? Your love can go up in flames like mine did. No? Would you prefer something quicker? Another gunshot to her brain? A knife wound to her heart? Poison perhaps? Or how about I strangle her with my bare hands? It'd be a shame, though, to bruise such lovely skin." He traced the outline of Piper's face with his fingers, knowing that it would torment and infuriate Leo.

Leo tried desperately to speak, but for a couple agonizing minutes he could only watch as Tarquin caressed Piper's face. Finally he managed to move his mouth. "Get your hands off of her!" he cried. Tarquin only laughed at Leo's distress. Leo's brain was ordering all of his muscles to leap into action, to lunge at Tarquin and push him away from Piper. But his muscles couldn't respond. Not yet, anyway. He felt a strange tingling sensation throughout his body; the potion seemed to be wearing off. He wiggled one toe, then another. Soon, he hoped, the rest of his body would be back under his control. He needed more time. If Tarquin kept talking, kept taunting him, then he just might have a chance to save Piper.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Cole moved directly in front of Phoebe, putting his body between her and the Source.

"A romantic and a gentleman? You keep surprising me, Belthazor. Any last words before I kill you and your little witch?" A giant fireball hovered a few centimeters above the Source's outstretched hand.

"How did you--"

"–know where to find you?" The Source interrupted. "The whole underworld has been looking for you. Everyone knows of your betrayal. Just a few moments ago one of my spies reported that he had heard you arguing with your witch. Such a pity. You're going to die because you love her and she doesn't even love you back." The Source laughed as he threw the fireball at Cole. Cole, however, threw a fireball of his own. The two fireballs met in mid-air and destroyed each other.

Undeterred, the Source throw a volley of fireballs. Cole blocked each one in turn. "Don't get your hopes up, Belthazor. This is only the beginning. Surely you don't think that you're a match for me?" The Source's tone overflowed with contempt.

"I don't think it. I know it," Cole said proudly.

The Source was clearly not pleased with Cole's answer. "You'll be punished for your arrogance." Within the blink of an eye he sent an energy ball at Cole which knocked him to the ground. Phoebe instinctively ran to Cole's side.

"Are you okay?"

Cole nodded, but it took him a few moments to stand. "Is that the best you got?" He challenged the Source. Cole created an enormous energy ball which glowed and crackled in his hands. He hurled it at the Source's head. Unfortunately, the Source ducked just in time, so that the ball only grazed him.

"You'll be sorry you did that, Belthazor." While Cole was summoning another energy ball, the Source threw one of his own at Phoebe.

Cole didn't think before throwing himself in front of his love. This time he wouldn't be able to get up.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"You're in no position to give me orders, whitelighter," Tarquin said, laughing at Leo's demand that he stop touching Piper. "I can do anything I want to her, and you can't stop me." He moved his hands from her face to her hair. He stroked it softly, just as he had seen Leo doing minutes earlier. "Such beautiful hair," he said menacingly. "I think I'll take some with me. It'll be a nice trophy." Scissors materialized in his right hand. He cut a lock of her hair and triumphantly waved it in Leo's face.

Leo could feel his blood boiling. He could move his left foot now, but not his right. Both his arms and legs stood as still as statues. COME ON! He yelled at his body. MOVE, MOVE, MOVE! But the only things moving were the tears down his cheeks.

Tarquin silently rejoiced in Leo's tears. "So, Leo, have you made your decision? How am I going to kill your wife? If you don't choose, I'll choose for you, and I promise to pick something painful." Of course, no matter what Leo said, Tarquin was going to do what he wanted. He was in control here, and he loved every second of it.

Leo could move both feet now. He had to keep Tarquin talking; Yelling at himself hadn't done any good. He needed more time. "You won't kill Piper. The timeline will be restored, and you'll be remembered as nothing more than a low-level timejumper...if you're remembered at all."

Tarquin was furious. He briefly re-considered his plan to let Leo live. Yet he wouldn't give Leo the pleasure of knowing that his insult had affected him. He wouldn't show him how angry he was. _I'll stay calm_, he thought, _throw out an insult of my own, kill his wife, and leave him here crying like a baby_. "So the other sisters went to restore the timeline, did they? It'll be a short trip. My past self has considerable powers, and we both know that when the sisters travel back in time they're powerless. My past self will kill them, just as I'm about to kill your wife, and YOU'LL be remembered as the whitelighter who let the Charmed Ones die." Tarquin smiled and put his hands around Piper's throat. He had decided that demonic methods would be too quick, and he wanted to prolong his moment of glory. He also liked working with his hands.

Yet Tarquin's little speech had given Leo the time he needed. He orbed behind Tarquin and pulled him away from Piper with such force that both men fell to the floor.

Leo and Tarquin fought furiously on the floor of Piper's hospital room. Tarquin punched Leo in the face; Leo punched Tarquin in his rib cage. Leo briefly considered orbing Tarquin out of the hospital, but he didn't want to leave Piper alone, not even for a second. Ignoring his own pain and the blood dripping down his face, Leo punched and kicked Tarquin wherever he could. He wasn't an experienced fighter, in fact he considered himself a pacifist, but his anger at Tarquin for threatening Piper and his fervent desire to protect her had endowed him with extraordinary strength. Tarquin hadn't expected this kind of onslaught from a whitelighter. He was surprised to find that he was no match for Leo in physical strength. In a fair fight, Leo would win.

Luckily for Tarquin, however, he was a demon and didn't have to fight fairly. The paralysis potion was only one of many he had prepared for his encounter with the Charmed Ones. He had even made a potion particularly for Leo. Despite his earlier plan to leave Leo alive and miserable, he decided he would use this potion now. He summoned it to his hand and threw it at Leo.

Immediately Leo felt weak. He knew the potion Tarquin had used must have contained darklighter poison. He had been shot by a darklighter arrow before; on those occasions the poison had taken hours to work its way through his system. This potion, however, felt like it contained much more poison than a normal darklighter arrow. He was sure that he would be dead in minutes. Tarquin left him lying on the floor and moved towards Piper, determined to finish what he had started.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Phoebe couldn't believe that Cole was dead. He had died for her. The Source had murdered him, and now she would be next. _No, no! _Her mind screamed. _I have to stay alive, I can't save Piper if I'm dead!_

The Source looked at Phoebe as if she were a lower life form. "This is going to be too easy. Your sisters at least had respectable powers. What are you going to do—kill me with the power of premonition?" The Source laughed again, that horrible bone-chilling laugh.

The mention of her power gave Phoebe an idea. An incredibly desperate idea. She had to try it. Her sisters were counting on her. "I can't kill you, but you're going to die soon enough; I saw it!"

"You're lying."

"My premonitions never lie," Phoebe declared boldly.

"If my life were really in danger, the Seer would have told me."

"Unless the Seer was involved." Phoebe paused to try to judge the Source's reaction. He didn't trust her, but he also hadn't killed her yet. Phoebe knew that every tyrant, human or demonic, feared that he would be overthrown or killed. All she needed was to tap into that fear. "I'm the only one who can help you now."

"Am I supposed to believe that, if you did have a premonition about my death, you would want to help me?"

"Well, these are rather extraordinary circumstances. I'm willing to tell you the who, how, when, and where– in exchange for sparing my life." Phoebe put on her best poker face. If she could only convince him to take her back to the hotel, she could grab the potion and then–and then what? How would she go back in time? _One problem at a time_, she decided.

"And what assurances do I have that you indeed had a premonition, and that this isn't just an elaborate scheme to save yourself?"

_That's a good question_, Phoebe thought. _I need a good answer. Or...I could answer with another question_. "How am I supposed to prove that I had a premonition? Do you want to be able to prevent your murder or not?"

The Source considered this for several moments. "All right. Tell me what you saw...then I'll decide if the information is worth your life."

"The demon I saw killing you- I don't know his name, I've never seen him before. You need to take me to the hotel where my sisters and I were staying. The Book is there. I can use it to identify him." _And while I flip through the pages_, Phoebe thought, _I can be looking for a spell to go back in time_.

The Source stared at Phoebe for a long time, studying her face for any sign of deception. "If you are lying to me, I will make sure your death is long and excruciating."

XXXXXXXXX

The Source was watching Phoebe intently as she flipped through the Book of Shadows, so she had to hide her excitement when she saw a spell in her grandmother's writing titled "How to Restore the Timeline". She had already secretly pocketed some of the potion. Now all she needed was to excuse herself to the bathroom, say the spell, and vanquish Tarquin. Then Piper and the innocents would be alive while the Source and other demons would be dead.

"I have to go to the bathroom." Phoebe got off of the bed, where she had been sitting with the Book, and moved toward the bathroom door.

"No," The Source ordered. "You're not going anywhere until you identify the demon."

Phoebe reluctantly sat back down on the bed and began flipping through the Book again. She stopped when she found a upper level demon who had serious powers and looked rather menacing. "This one," she said. She left the page open, got up, and started walking towards the bathroom again.

"STOP!" The Source threw a fireball across her path for added emphasis. "You're sure that this is the one?"

"Yes." She could almost reach the door knob.

The Source grinned. "Now I know that you're lying. This demon's been dead for over a month now."

XXXXXXXXXX

When Prue saw Tarquin standing in the attic of her home, saying a spell to hide her family heirloom, she was filled with a rage greater than any she had ever known. He had resurrected every demon they had ever faced–including Cole, who was now possibly holding Phoebe hostage somewhere, and whoever had possessed Duane to shoot Piper. He had been responsible for the deaths of the innocents they were supposed to save. But now she was going to stop him. He would never hurt anyone ever again. She hurled the potion at him, but something unexpected happened. Tarquin, who hadn't acknowledged Prue's presence or shown any sign that he knew she was there, reached out his hand and caught it.

"I thought that you might try to stop me." Tarquin faced her for the first time. "Lucky for us both that I caught that. Knowing you, though, you probably brought extras, didn't you?"

Prue indeed had other vials in her pocket, but she wouldn't tell him he was right.

"That's okay. You're not going to throw another potion at me."

His arrogance infuriated her. "Is that what you think?"

"Come on, Prue. You throw that potion and we're both dead. It's easy for you to say you're willing to sacrifice your life for your sisters and the innocents, but now that's the moment's here, you won't be able to do it. The human instinct for self-preservation is too strong. You want to live, Prue. You're going to walk away now."

Prue tossed another vial at his arrogant face. _That's for my sisters_, she thought as the potion hit its target. _And for my nephew_.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Leo was alive, which told him that Prue had succeeded. Piper was safe now, and Phoebe, and all the innocents they had originally protected. He hadn't been this happy since...since the day he had married Piper. Everything was now as it was before, and the sisters wouldn't even remember any of this. Leo frowned at the thought. They deserved to know what had happened. They deserved to know what Prue had done for them. Leo orbed to the Elders even as he finished the thought.

"Congratulations, Leo," Solon said upon his arrival. "The timeline is now as it should be, and no one will remember Tarquin's interference."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Tarquin's 'interference', as sinister as it was, allowed Piper and Phoebe to spend some extra time with their sister. I would like to ask you to give them those memories."

"You don't think it will distress them to remember that they lost their sister again?"

"It will distress them, but it will also comfort them to know that this time Prue had a choice. She chose to sacrifice herself to save their future. And while they'll remember her death, they'll remember her life, too."

Solon thought about this for a few moments, then nodded. "It will be done."

Leo thanked Solon and prepared to orb to Piper. _Thank you for giving me my wife back, Prue_, Leo said silently. _I promise that I'll take good care of her for you_.

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated. One more chapter to go!**


	30. Chapter 30

**AN: Thanks to Jedi Alanna, piperloveleoalways, WelshCanuck, -0-charmed-freak-0-, rikkukirst and lizardmomma for your reviews of Chapter 29; I wish every writer could have loyal reviewers like you!**

Chapter Thirty

Piper knew that she couldn't freeze good witches, but what about naughty witches–naughty sister witches who were fighting over a stupid pair of gloves? She had ignored them at first, but now it was getting ridiculous. It couldn't hurt to try. She threw her hands forward experimentally. Her sisters kept arguing, and the street light in the alley kept flickering. It hadn't worked, but then she hadn't expected it would. Nothing else today had worked out the way she wanted. She looked up and down the dark alley for the thousandth time. Why couldn't the darklighter Phoebe saw in her premonition just hurry up and get here? She stifled a yawn. She would have been given anything to be back home in her warm bed. She was so cold and tired and–

–and the memories of the past few days suddenly flooded her brain. Prue...Tarquin...the timeline...the demon army...Windbury's...Duane. She looked over at Phoebe, who had finally stopped bickering with Paige. She knew from the look on Phoebe's face that Phoebe was experiencing the same invasion of memories. Phoebe ran to Piper and embraced her.

"I'm so glad you're okay." Phoebe held onto Piper tightly, never wanting to let her go.

"I'm glad you're okay, too." Piper held Phoebe just as tightly. "So-- you and Prue restored the timeline?"

Phoebe looked embarrassed. "Just Prue. I was in the Underworld with Cole, and then the Source came--"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Paige interrupted. "Prue? Cole? The Source? What's going on here?"

"Long story. We'll explain when we get home." Piper motioned for Paige to join them. She and Phoebe enveloped their younger sister in a group hug. The hug was cut short, however, by the sound of approaching footsteps. The sisters whirled around to see the source of the noise.

"That's her!" Phoebe whispered. "That's the girl from my vision!"

The sisters ducked behind the dumpster. Seconds later the darklighter appeared behind the girl. Paige orbed her out of the way. The darklighter howled and moved towards the dumpster menacingly. As soon as he came close enough, Piper blew him up. They all watched as he went up in flames and vanished.

"What...what was that?" The girl asked the sisters. She looked like she might faint, so Paige helped her sit down.

"You don't want to know," Phoebe answered.

After a few minutes the girl appeared to be slowly coming to her senses. "You...just saved my life...and you don't even know me." She seemed to be more surprised than afraid of the whole situation. She stood up with Paige's help. "I'm Bethany." She shook hands with each sister in turn, pausing when she reached Piper. "Wait-I know you! You're Piper Halliwell! James and I go to P3 all the time; it's our favorite club. James is my fiancee," She added happily. "We're getting married in August. You're all welcome to come to the wedding."

The sisters looked at each other uneasily. "Bethany, can we trust you not to tell anyone about us? We couldn't do what we do if people knew who we were." Phoebe had used this line successfully before.

"Of course. You have my promise–and my thanks." She smiled earnestly at the sisters. "Well, I should probably go home. I'll call James to give me a ride."

"Don't bother," Paige said. "I can take you home."

"Thanks again. What you guys do...it's amazing." She gushed.

"You're welcome." Piper answered. Bethany waved goodbye as Paige orbed her home. Piper thought about what Bethany had said. She was glad that this time she had been listening. What they did as the Charmed Ones really was amazing and, though it could be a real pain sometimes, at the end of the day it was worth it. They hadn't just saved Bethany. They had saved Hannah, too, and who knew how many of her charges she would save?

"Ready to get out of here?" Paige said when she orbed back to the alley. Piper didn't hear her. She was concentrating on another set of incoming blue lights. Her heart leapt when she saw Leo, and his did the same when he saw her. "Are you okay?" He asked.

Piper nodded.

"Good." Leo pulled Piper close to him and kissed her so passionately that Phoebe and Paige whistled in admiration.

"Whoa, Leo," Phoebe chuckled.

"Don't forget to breathe," Paige added.

Leo laughed. "Let's go home."

"Agreed." Phoebe took Paige's hand as Piper took Leo's. They left the alley behind in a shower of lights.

XXXXXXXXX

As Piper and Leo stood side by side, watching Wyatt sleep, Piper thought about how lucky she was. It didn't matter that demons and warlocks would always pursue them, and that they would always have to put their lives on hold to help others. She had a husband, son, and sisters who loved her as much as she loved them; she had a successful business; she had powers which helped save innocents like Bethany – and she had this great life because Prue had sacrificed hers. She owed it to Prue to live every minute of it. _I'll always love you_ _Prue_, she thought with tears in her eyes.

Prue's spirit heard her sister and answered. _I'll always love you, too_.

**Thanks for reading! All comments are greatly appreciated. :)**


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